NYC88LA214 · Bell 47G5
Maine Helicopters Bell 47G5 · Accident: loss of control in flight while taxiing
From Portland International Jetport (PWM) to B1D
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC88LA214
- 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 47G5
- 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
- N14861
- Operator
- Maine Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland International Jetport (PWM), Portland, METo B1D
- 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
- Taxi · aerial
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Rotorcraft flight controls, improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Biddeford, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER MADE AN APPROACH TO A LOW HOVER ABOVE A HARD SURFACED RWY. THE HELICOPTER WAS SLOWLY AIR TAXIING WHEN THE PLT FELT THE HELICOPTER BECOME UNSTABLE DIRECTIONALLY AND HE CONSIDERED MAKING A RUN-ON LANDING. HOWEVER, BEFORE HE COULD MAKE THE LANDING THE PILOT SAID 'THE NOSE STARTED GOING TO THE RIGHT VERY QUICKLY AND I ATTEMPTED TO ACCELERATE CAREFULLY FORWARD WHICH DIDN'T WORK'. THE AIRCRAFT RAPIDLY WENT THROUGH ABOUT 360 DEG OF TURN BEFORE STRIKING THE GROUND IN A LEVEL ATTITUDE. THE TEMP AT THE TIME OF THE ACFT WAS 90 DEG F RESULTING IN A DENSITY ALT OF 2200 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC88LA214
- Event ID
- 20001213X26686
- Case number
- NYC88LA214
- 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: d280fb2563ea2a6bd1a8587333b62953f1fa418598f53770161ba177587b8d22; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:26:57.262Z.