NYC86FA183 · Bell B-222A
Bell B-222A · Accident: explosion en route
From NEW YORK, NY to Princeton, NJ
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC86FA183
- 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 B-222A
- Aircraft type
- Bell B-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
- N404WW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From NEW YORK, NYTo Princeton, NJ
- 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
- Explosion
- 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 › Diverted attention
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Improper use of procedure
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not performed
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Wrong engine shutdown, performed
- Turbine assembly, turbine blade › Failure, total
- Turboshaft engine › Failure, partial
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Staten Island, NY, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER, ON A FAR 135 FLIGHT WAS IN CRUISE FLT AT 900 FT. THE PLT WAS CHECKING FOR CALLED VFR TRAFFIC AND THE CO-PILOT WAS OCCUPPIED WITH THE RNAV WHEN A LOUD BANG WAS HEARD AND A SUDDEN YAW WAS FELT. BOTH CREW MEMBERS STATED THEY REACTED AS INSTRUCTED AND IN THE PROCESS ANOTHER ENGINE FAILED. A WATER DITCHING WAS UNAVOIDABLE. INSPECTIONFAILED TO REVEAL ANY MECHANICAL FAILURE/MALFUNCTION OF THE #1 ENG. THE #2 ENG HAD A POWER TURBINE BLADE FAILURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC86FA183
- Event ID
- 20001213X34290
- Case number
- NYC86FA183
- 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: 7d544b4c3bb8095935b976f5fb9a4731d42711c07414418d117ded1d7190332b; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:57:26.403Z.