[ems] Bell 206L accident
Bell 206L · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL85FA170
- 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
- 2 · 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 206L
- 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
- N403DC
- Operator
- [ems]
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK), Chamblee, GA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Utility pole
- 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
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Duluth, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AFTER LOADING A SERIOUSLY BURNED PATIENT IN THE HELICOPTER, THE PLT STARTED THE ENG & LIFTED OFF FROM THE HOSPITAL PARKING LOT. IMMEDIATELY AFTER LIFT-OFF, HE STARTED FORWARD TRANSLATIONAL FLT. ABOUT 65 FT FROM THE LIFT-OFF POINT, AN ADVANCING MAIN ROTOR BLADE STRUCK AN UNMARKED LAMP POST. THE HELICOPTER THEN CRASHED IN THE PARKING LOT, JUST BEYOND THE LAMP POST. THE PLT & ONE MEDICAL ATTENDANT WERE FATALLY INJURED, THE OTHER MEDICAL ATTENDANT WAS SERIOUSLY INJURED. REPORTEDLY, THE PATIENT DID NOT SUSTAIN ANY ADDITIONAL DISCERNIBLE INJURY FROM THE CRASH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL85FA170
- Event ID
- 20001214X36349
- Case number
- ATL85FA170
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: ba0e9e1ec91c913495a5e2cf37ace6efce9a9749c557b6683533744d818d1ecc; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:25:52.175Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N403DC; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.