Wico Aviation Bell 206L-1 accident
Bell 206L-1 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC89FA013
- 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
- N555GC
- Operator
- Wico Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- 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 starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system › Improper
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Unknown › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Wallingford, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT LOST POWER AND CRASHED IN A TRACTOR TRAILER PARKING LOT, DESTROYING THE HELICOPTER AND CAUSING SERIOUS INJURIES TO THE PILOT AND ONE PASSENGER. THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED AN IMPROPER FUEL FLOW SWITCH, WHICH HAD NO CHECK VALVE PROTECTION INSTALLED ON SYSTEM NO 1. THE FAA CERTIFICATION BRANCH (ASW-170) STATED THAT IF THE WRONG FUEL FLOW SWITCH IS USED AND THE BOOST PUMP CIRCUIT BREAKERS ARE PULLED, A FLAMEOUT IS LIKELY. THE PILOT SAID HE PULLED THE MASTER CAUTION BREAKER AND MAY HAVE PULLED THE BOOST PUMP BREAKERS 'PREPARING FOR LANDING'. THE FUEL BOOST PUMP CIRCUIT BREAKERS WERE PULLED AND THERE WERE APPROXIMATELY 27 GAL OF FUEL REMAINING, WHEN THE ENGINE QUIT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC89FA013
- Event ID
- 20001213X27148
- Case number
- NYC89FA013
- 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: a0f8b756f8df0d857d043baa7c0db7d1b499b545a7683e8a3924b1af5c5ef283; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:17:33.684Z.