MIA91GA050 · Bell 206 B3
Bell 206 B3 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Lakeland Linder International Airport (LAL) to Tallahassee International Airport (TLH)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA91GA050
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Bell 206 B3
- Aircraft type
- Bell 206
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N37AN
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lakeland Linder International Airport (LAL), Lakeland, FLTo Tallahassee International Airport (TLH), Tallahassee, FL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight encounter with weather
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Descent, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight briefing service, improper use of
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, not possible
- Pilot in command › Weather forecast, not obtained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PILOT DID NOT RECEIVED FULL WEATHER BRIEFING PRIOR TO DEPARTURE ON CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT. ON ARRIVAL AT DEST FLIGHT ENCOUNTERED INSTRUMENT METEOROLGICAL CONDITIONS, AS HAD BEEN FORECAST. WHILE DESCENDING IN VISUAL METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS, AT NIGHT, OVER COASTLINE TO GET BELOW LOW OVERCAST LAYER OF CLOUDS, PILOT LOST OUTSIDE VISUAL REFERENCE AND ALLOWED THE HELICOPTER TO DESCEND AND CRASH INTO THE WATER. NO MECHANICAL FAILURES OF THE HELICOPTER OR ENGINE WERE NOTED AFTER THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN SAFE ALTITUDE WHILE DESCENDING OVER A COASTLINE, AT NIGHT, IN VISUAL METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S FAILURE TO OBTAIN A FULL WEATHER BRIEFING PRIOR TO DEPARTURE RESULTING IN HIS ENCOUNTER WITH INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS AT HIS DESTINATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA91GA050
- Event ID
- 20001212X24782
- Case number
- MIA91GA050
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1990-12-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5de823f06832916011c80758a06caeda17d59319b467312d64ac11189185003b; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:41:01.031Z.