NYC88LA209 · Bell 47G3B-1
Bell 47G3B-1 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Augusta State Airport (AUG) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC88LA209
- 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 47G3B-1
- 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
- N6286N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Augusta State Airport (AUG), Augusta, METo 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
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Diverted attention
- Pilot in command › Rotorcraft flight controls, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Tail rotor/anti-torque control, improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Oakland, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING AN AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY FLT, THE PILOT WAS MANEUVERING AT 30 FT, AT 25 MPH AND MAKING A RIGHT TURN OVER A LAKE WHEN THE NOSE OF THE HELICOPTER SWUNG TO THE RIGHT UNEXPECTEDLY. HE STATED THAT 'WHEN THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED THE UNEXPECTED SWING TO THE RIGHT I ONLY HAD TIME TO REALIZE THAT I LOST TAIL ROTOR EFFECTIVENESS AND ATTEMPT TO ACCELERATE FORWARD WITH CYCLIC BEFORE WATER IMPACT.' THE PHOTOGRAPHER HAD PHOTOGRAPHED A CAMP AND WATER SKIERS AND HAD ASKED THE PILOT TO MANEUVER NEAR A BOAT, OVER A FLOAT, WHEN THE LOSS OF CONTROL OCCURRED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC88LA209
- Event ID
- 20001213X26681
- Case number
- NYC88LA209
- 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: dc8d571342459310e7470aa47d6226e4dc4634d4ce612a9fec05c3f8494effc6; retrieved 2026-09-23T09:17:32.733Z.