DEN88LA135 · Bell 47G
High Country Helicopters Bell 47G · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From South Big Horn County Airport (GEY) to Miles City Airport - Frank Wiley Field (MLS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN88LA135
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Bell 47G
- Aircraft type
- Bell 47
- 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
- N2243W
- Operator
- High Country Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From South Big Horn County Airport (GEY), Greybull, WYTo Miles City Airport - Frank Wiley Field (MLS), Miles City, MT
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Terry, MT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT WAS ON A FERRY FLIGHT FROM ALPINE, WY. TO BELFIELD, ND. THE PLT DEPARTED ALPINE AT APPROXIMATELY 0950 AND MADE SEVERAL ENROUTE STOPS TO REFUEL. THE PLT INTENDED TO LAND AT MILES CITY, MT TO REFUEL BUT HE GOT LOST AND FLEW TO TERRY, MT, LOCATED 38 MILES EAST OF MILES CITY. THE PLT STATED HE EXPERIENCED AN ENG FAILURE AND EXECUTED AN AUTOROTATION. DURING THE EMERGENCY LANDING THE PLT HAD TO AVOID PWR LINES, THUS LOSING ROTOR RPM. THE ACFT LANDED HARD. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED SEVERAL QUARTS OF FUEL IN THE FUEL TANKS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN88LA135
- Event ID
- 20001213X25934
- Case number
- DEN88LA135
- 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 1988-06-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b6338ee2ddb22b42d294fafd5e5e6ad90fa35a09f731843c715e07b989510f80; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:08:33.571Z.