LAX86LA203 · Bell 47G-2
Bell 47G-2 · Accident: forced landing during an emergency descent
From Palmdale Regional Airport / USAF Plant 42 Airport (PMD) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA203
- 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-2
- 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
- N4239J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Palmdale Regional Airport / USAF Plant 42 Airport (PMD), Palmdale, CATo 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
- Emergency descent
- 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
- Forced landing
- 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
- Pilot in command › Flare, improper
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER LANDED HARD IN THE DESERT WHILE ON A VFR PERSONAL FLT. THE PLT INDICATED THAT HE JUST DEPARTED A MOUNTIAN AREA FOR REFUELING. HE ALSO INDICATED HE WAS DISORIENTED AND THE COMPASS WAS INOPERABLE. HE DECIDED TO LAND AND CHECK THE FUEL QUANTITY. HE STATED HE MISJUDGED THE LANDING, THE TAIL HIT THE DESERT FLOOR AND THE MAIN ROTOR STRUCK AND SEVERED THE TAIL BOOM. APRX 1 QUART OF FUEL WAS DRAINED FROM THE ENTIRE FUEL SYSTEM. ACCORDING TO THE MANUFACTURERS OPERATORS MANUAL FOR THE BELL 47G, THE FUEL CAPACITY IS 43 GALLONS TOTAL WITH 41 GALLONS USABLE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA203
- Event ID
- 20001213X33587
- Case number
- LAX86LA203
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1986-05-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 269b07971b5268ed3a1388d954f215a44de082367ad42e1ee54d743e16eddb07; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:45:08.130Z.