Kona Helicopters Bell 206B accident
Bell 206B · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole (KOA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87LA161
- 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
- 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 206B
- 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
- N90153
- Operator
- Kona Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole (KOA), KE-AHOLE, HITo 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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 › Altitude, improper
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT PICKED UP TWO OF THE PASSENGERS AT A RESORT HOTEL AND THEN FLEW TO KAILUA-KONA AIRPORT (KOA). AFTER HOT REFUELING THE HELICOPTER WITH THE TWO PASSENGERS ON BOARD, TWO MORE PASSENGERS BOARDED THE HELICOPTER AND THEN THE FLIGHT DEPARTED KOA. WHEN THE FLIGHT EXITED WAIMANU VALLEY OVER THE BEACH THE PILOT OBSERVED ANOTHER COMPANY HELICOPTER. AFTER ESTABLISHING RADIO COMM WITH THE OTHER HELICOPTER THE PILOT ALTERED HIS COURSE TO THE WEST BEYOND THE SHORELINE AT 200 FEET AGL. THE WESTERLY COURSE EXTENDED ABOUT 1/4 MILE FROM THE SHORELINE. THE HELICOPTER'S ENGINE BEGAN TO DECELERATE. THE PILOT EXECUTED AN AUTOROTATION INTO THE OCEAN. THE HELICOPTER SANK, BUT ALL OF THE OCCUPANTS EXITED. THE PAX WERE NOT WEARING LIFE VESTS AND ONE PAX DROWNED. THE HELICOPTER WAS NOT EQUIPED WITH ANY OF THE REQUIRED FLOTATION DEVICES. THE HELICOPTER WAS NOT RECOVERED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87LA161
- Event ID
- 20001213X30486
- Case number
- LAX87LA161
- 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: 683fd8fd4bd929ca0d998e273bc5721a3a0484c6d15c4532550ad4cca6b1a029; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:14:49.065Z.