[ems] Bell 206L-1 accident
Bell 206L-1 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Springfield, MO to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC88FA070
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Bell 206L-1
- 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
- N119AE
- Operator
- EMS
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Springfield, MOTo not recorded
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Emergency lights, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ENROUTE TO A VEHICLE ACCIDENT THE PILOT ENCOUNTERED INSTRUMENT FLIGHT CONDITIONS. AS A RESULT OF FLYING INTO FOG AND TURNING ON HIS NIGHT SCANNER LIGHT, THE PILOT EXPERIENCED SPATIAL DISORIENTATION AND FAILED TO MAINTAIN AIRCRAFT CONTROL. THE PILOT ELECTED TO EXECUTE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING AND IMPACTED A LARGE ROW OF HAY BALES. THE PILOT RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING PRIOR TO TAKEOFF. WEATHER IN THE AREA WAS FORCAST TO BE MARGINAL VFR WITH PERIODS OF INSTRUMENT FLIGHT CONDITIONS. LOCAL WEATHER WAS ADDRESSED BY A SIGMET (NO. 23C) AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC88FA070
- Event ID
- 20001213X25536
- Case number
- MKC88FA070
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4297073baf159fc51cde4a5bd55a311820361fe59e7a0206622a2cb1ef564b9b; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:24:09.773Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N119AE; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.