ATL85FA135 · Bell 206L-1
Bell 206L-1 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From an unrecorded airport to 316
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL85FA135
- 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 206L-1
- 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
- N773WW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 316
- 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
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel starvation; Tree(s)
- 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, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system › Undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PAX DEPLANED & THE PLT TOOK OFF ON A SHORT FLT TO A NEARBY ARPT TO REFUEL. AFTER CLIMBING FOR ABOUT 30 TO 40 SEC & ACCELERATING TO APRX 100 KTS, THE PLT STARTED TO ADJUST THE PWR FOR LVL FLT. AT ABOUT THAT TIME, THE ENG LOST PWR. THE PLT ATTEMPTED TO RESTORE ENG PWR, BUT WAS UNABLE. HE TURNED TO LAND IN A LARGE FIELD THAT HE HAD JUST OVERFLOWN. DRGAN AUTOROTATION, THE ENG STABILIZED AT IDLE RPM, BUT WOULD NOT RESPOND TO THROTTLE MOVEMENTS. THE PLT SAW POWER LINES IN HIS AUTOROTATION PATH & ELECTED TO CROSS OVER A CREEK & A ROW OF TREES & LAND IN ANOTHER FIELD. HOWEVER, THE HELI- COPTER HAD INSUFFICIENT ALT TO CLEAR THE TREES. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT HIT THE TREES & CRASH LANDED ON A CREEK BANK. AFTER LANDING, THE ENG WAS STILL RUNNING & WAS SHUT DOWN BY USING THE FUEL SHUT-OFF SW. THE AFT FUEL CELL WAS PUNCTURED DRG IMPACT; THEREFORE, THE AMOUNT OF FUEL ON BOARD COULD NOT BE DETERMINED. THE ENG OPERATED DRG A POST-CRASH CHECK, BUT IMPACT DAMAGE PREVENTED OPERATING IT AT HIGH RPM. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS VERIFIED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL85FA135
- Event ID
- 20001214X36074
- Case number
- ATL85FA135
- 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: ff5150676ade59fec88023c595ae2a41369dbe03855cad040d5553bfe9d7a3ab; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:19:04.914Z.