ATL89FA193 · Texas Helicopter OH-13/M74
Texas Helicopter OH-13/M74 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89FA193
- 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
Texas Helicopter OH-13/M74
- Aircraft type
- Texas OH-13
- 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
- N51850
- Operator
- Unknown
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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 · aerial application
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Physical impairment(other toxic)
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD BEEN MAKING AGRICULTURAL AERIAL APPLICATION FLIGHTS ALL DAY WITH SOME INTERRUPTIONS FOR RAIN. HE HAD BEEN APPLYING LANNATE AND BRAVO; THE LOAD ABOARD AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WAS THE SAME. AFTER A LUNCH BREAK, THE PILOT MADE ONE FLIGHT & LOADED FOR THE NEXT. THE LIFTOFF AND DEPARTURE WERE REPORTED TO BE NORMAL, BUT WHEN THE HELICOPTER DID NOT RETURN AS EXPECTED, A SEARCH WAS INITIATED. WRECKAGE OF THE HELICOPTER WAS FOUND NEAR THE INTENDED AERIAL APPLICATION SITE. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE WAS FOUND; HOWEVER, THE HELICOPTER WAS EXTENSIVELY DAMAGED. A TOXICOLOGY CHECK OF THE PILOT'S BLOOD REVEALED THE PRESENCE OF METHOMYL (LANNATE) AT A LEVEL OF 600 PARTS/BILLION. THE PILOT HAD NOT BEEN USING A RESPIRATOR. HIS LAST RPRTD MEDICAL CHECK WAS ON 2/7/89.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN HIS PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENT FROM EXPOSURE TO LANNATE, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE/CLEARANCE ABOVE THE GROUND. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO USE A RESPIRATOR WHILE HANDLING OR BEING EXPOSED TO LANNATE.,
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89FA193
- Event ID
- 20001213X29024
- Case number
- ATL89FA193
- 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: 0803c9f14804c349deb91927b1acee326b70f353b39fa9f448706622bcf388a4; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:12:50.339Z.