NYC88FA133 · Bell 206B
Island Helicopters Bell 206B · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From East 34th Street Heliport (TSS) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC88FA133
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Bell 206B
- 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
- N7094J
- Operator
- Island Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From East 34th Street Heliport (TSS), Manhattan, NYTo 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 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
- Approach · VFR pattern turn to base
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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 › Autorotation, improper
- Pilot in command › Collective, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
- Turboshaft engine, free turbine governor › Cracked
- Turboshaft engine, free turbine governor › Underspeed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE BELL 206B WAS ON A SIGHTSEEING FLIGHT AROUND THE ISLAND OF MANHATTAN WHEN IT EXPERIENCED A LOW ROTOR RPM SITUATION. THE PILOT SAID HE COULD NOT RECOVER ROTOR RPM AND MADE A FORCED LANDING IN THE EAST RIVER. THE PILOT AND THREE PASSENGERS EXITED THE AIRCRAFT AND HUNG ONTO THE FLOATS WHICH WERE INFLATED AND SEPARATED FROM THE AIRCRAFT. ONE PASSENGER DID NOT ESCAPE, WAS FOUND IN THE AIRCRAFT 1 1/2 HOURS LATER AND DIED OF DROWNING. A FATIGUE CRACK WAS FOUND ON THE POWER TURBINE GOVERNOR NEAR THE PY PORT WHICH WOULD CAUSE THE ENGINE TO LOSE POWER. THE PILOT AND PASSENGERS SAID A WARNING HORN IDENTIFIED AS THE LOW ROTOR WARNING HORN, STAYED ON THROUGHOUT THE DESCENT. THE LOW ROTOR RPM WARNING HORN IS DESIGNED TO SOUND WHEN A LOW ROTOR RPM CONDITION EXISTS. NO EVIDENCE OF ANY COLLECTIVE CONTROL PROBLEM WAS FOUND AND THE PILOT DID NOT MENTION A JAMMED COLLECTIVE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC88FA133
- Event ID
- 20001213X25794
- Case number
- NYC88FA133
- 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: 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: 8db32e04f33b05dfee46eb440a41ceda00441e96df09b219ad3cf912931c2af0; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:44:20.887Z.