BFO87FA057 · Bell 206B
Stuart Aviation Bell 206B · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO87FA057
- 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
- 3 · 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 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
- N83080
- Operator
- Stuart Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DCTo 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 · hover
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Turboshaft engine, gas generator turbine shaft › Fatigue
- Turboshaft engine, gas generator turbine shaft › Worn
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER WAS ON A LCL PHOTOGRAPHY (SIGHT-SEEING) FLT. WHILE HOVERING AT APRX 200' ABV THE POTOMAC RIVER, THE ENG LOST PWR. THE PLT INITIATED AN AUTOROTATION & DEPLOYED THE EMERG FLOATS. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE HELICOPTER IMPACTED IN THE RIVER & ROLLED OVR, BUT WAS SUPPORTED (UPSIDE DOWN) IN THE WATER BY THE FLOATS. AFTER RECOVERY, NO PREIMPACT PART FAIL- URE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE AIRFRAME WAS FND. HOWEVER, A TEARDOWN OF THE ENG REVEALED THE SPUR ADAPTER GEARSHAFT (SAG), PN 6890482, HAD FAILED FROM WEAR & SUBSEQUENT FATIGUE. THE FAILURE OCCURRED AT THE FWD, SPLINED END OF THE SAG. DEBRIS (82% SILICON) WAS FND INSIDE THE OIL DELIVERY TUBE. THE OIL JETS FOR THE #2 & #3 BRGS WERE OBSTRUCTED, BUT THE JET FOR SAG WAS NOT OBSTRUCTED. THE PRECISE NATURE OF THE CONDS & CIRCUMSTANCES THAT LED TO EXCESSIVE WEAR WAS NOT DETERMINED. THE HEIGHT/VELOCITY DIAGRAM IN THE FLT MANUAL SHOWED HOVERING FLT BTN 10 & 400 FT SHOULD BE AVOIDED (TO ALLOW FOR SUCCESSFUL AUTOROTATIVE LNDG IN THE EVENT OF A PWR LOSS).
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO87FA057
- Event ID
- 20001213X31729
- Case number
- BFO87FA057
- 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: 0bbe501475c8beae8ce7a446239771d83a1b833ddbb229b197f1ae681e5d9642; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:01:37.399Z.