MIA89LA229 · Bell 47G
Bell 47G · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Rafael Hernández International Airport (BQN) to Mercedita International Airport (PSE)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA89LA229
- 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
- N955B
- Operator
- Esteves, Arturo · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rafael Hernández International Airport (BQN), BORINQUEN, PRTo Mercedita International Airport (PSE)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Rotor drive system, tail rotor drive shaft › Failure, total
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Ponce, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PLT WAS ON AN APCH TO LAND ON A X-COUNTRY FLT, WHEN THE AFT TAIL ROTOR DRIVE SHAFT (PN: 47-644-187) FAILED AT ABOUT 40' AGL. HE RPRTD THE HELICOPTER BEGAN TO SPIN TO THE RIGHT, SO HE CLOSED THE THROTTLE & THE SPINNING STOPPED. HE PULLED UP ON THE COLLECTIVE TO CUSHION THE LANDING, BUT RAN OUT OF COLLECTIVE PITCH AT ABOUT 10' ABOVE THE GROUND. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE HELICOPTER TOUCHED DOWN HARD, DAMAGING THE TAIL ROTOR & TAIL BOOM. THE TAIL ROTOR DRIVE SHAFT HAD FAILED JUST FORWARD OF THE 90 DEG GEAR BOX.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE AFT TAIL ROTOR DRIVE SHAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA89LA229
- Event ID
- 20001213X29193
- Case number
- MIA89LA229
- 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: 1f925e67e785912f89dfae1f35af18e37f536bd3bda0b7960602fb54dab302d0; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:14:26.933Z.