MIA87LA155 · Bell 47G-3B1
Whirleybird Helicopters Bell 47G-3B1 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA87LA155
- 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-3B1
- 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
- N43CD
- Operator
- Whirleybird Helicopters
- 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 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 (mechanical 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, clutch assembly › Failure, total
- Rotor drive system, clutch assembly › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT REPORTED THAT SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF THE ENG BEGAN TO LOSE POWER, THEN FAILED. HE THEN AUTOROTATED & SET THE HELICOPTER DOWN APRX 6 FEET OFFSHORE. EXAMINATION OF THE ENG LOGBOOKS BY FAA PERSONNEL REVEALED THAT AD 62-23-02 WHICH REQUIRES INSP OF THE OIL FILTER EVERY 25 HOURS HAD BEEN OVERDUE BY 20.9 HOURS. INSP OF THE TRANSMISSION REVEALED THAT A 5 1/2 INCH PIECE FROM THE CLUTCH DRUM RING SEPARATED WHICH DISENGAGED THE MAIN ROTOR FROM THE ENG RESULTING IN THE LOSS OF MAIN ROTOR RPM. EXAMINATION OF THE FAILED CLUTCH DRUM RING REVEALED EVIDENCE TO SUGGEST THAT IT FAILED DUE TO FATIGUE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA87LA155
- Event ID
- 20001213X30984
- Case number
- MIA87LA155
- 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: 811040babce28dbfa147f4ce3d570366022d0d90500c6563004f97d00912b69a; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:12:25.706Z.