Pumpkin Air Bell 222UT accident
Bell 222UT · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Lumberton, NC to Durham, NC
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86FA203
- 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
- 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 222UT
- Aircraft type
- Bell 222
- 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
- N222DU
- Operator
- Pumpkin Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lumberton, NCTo Durham, NC
- 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
- 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
- Fluid, oil › Overtemperature
- Fluid, oil › Starvation
- Lubricating system › Blocked(partial)
- Lubricating system › Contamination
- Manufacturer › Acft/equip, inadequate aircraft component
- Turbine assembly, seal › Worn
- Turbine assembly, shaft bearing › Failure, total
- Turbine assembly, shaft bearing › Overtemperature
- Turboshaft engine, free(power) turbine › Burst
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG AN EMERG MED SVC (EMS)/MED EVAC FLT, AN UNCONTAINED PWR TURBINE BURST OF THE #1 ENG OCCURRED. DEBRIS FM THE #1 ENG DISABLED THE #2 ENG & SEVERED THE TAIL ROTOR DRIVE SHAFT. THE #2 ENG FIRE LGT ILLUMINATED & THE PLT DISCHARGED THE #2 ENG FIRE EXTINGUISHER. DRG AN AUTOROTATIVE LNDG, THE PLT INCREASED COLLECTIVE TO CLR TREES, AND THE HELICOPTER ROLLED ON ITS SIDE AT TOUCHDOWN. THE PLT, 1 NURSE & THE PATIENT WERE UNHARMED, BUT 2 NURSES RCVD MINOR INJURIES. AN EXAM SHOWEDTHE #2 & #3 BRGS IN THE #1 ENG HAD OVERHEATED & FAILED DUE TO LACK OF LUBRICATION. OIL PASSAGES & JETS TO THE BRGS WERE FND CLOGGED WITH HVY CARBON DEPOSITS. THE ENG COMBUSTOR HOUSING WAS CHNGD APRX 13 FLT HRS BFR THE ACDNT DUE TO A CLOGGEDVENT STRUT; AFTER DRAINING OIL, THE OIL SYS WASN'T FLUSHED, BUT FLUSHING WASN'T REQD. EVIDENCE SHOWED LYC LTS 101-750C-1ENGS WERE SUSCEPTIBLE TO CARBON CLOGGING; THAT THE #2 SEALS TENDED TO ERODE & ALLOW EXCESSIVE HOT GASES INTO THE #2 & #3BRGS. AFTER THE ACDNT, THE FAA ISSUED AD 86-22-05, REQUIRING INCREASED INSPN & MAINT PROCEDURES TO PREVENT RECURRENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86FA203
- Event ID
- 20001213X34059
- Case number
- ATL86FA203
- 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: 9edeaf217a1743f4ea36c474d472c0cd9afe7bc63bb984287d29492cb6b02f80; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:57:05.674Z.