ATL85FA193 · Bell 206L-1
Bell 206L-1 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From ODD, WV (no airport) to Raleigh County Memorial Airport (BKW)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL85FA193
- 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
- N27716
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ODD, WV (no airport)To Raleigh County Memorial Airport (BKW), Beckley, WV
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- 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 › Other
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, line fitting › Leak
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Pilot in command › Flare, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT TOOK OFF AT 1805 WITH 150 LBS OF FUEL REMAINING, INTENDING TO FLY TO BECKLEY, WV TO REFUEL. HE STATED THAT AFTERHE WAS IN LVL FLT AT ABOUT 3000 FT MSL FOR 3 TO 4 MIN, HE NOTED AN UNUSUAL JERK OR VIBRATION IN THE REAR. SUSPECTING A PSBL TAIL ROTOR PROBLEM, HE LOWERED THE COLLECTIVE & TURNED TOWARD AN OPEN AREA. HE THEN NOTED THAT THE ENG HAD LOST POWER. DRG AN AUTOROTATIVE LANDING, THE HELICOPTER TOUCHED DOWN HARD WITHOUT ENOUGH RPM TO CUSHION THE LNDG. AN EXAM OF THE FUEL SYS REVEALED THERE WAS ABOUT 20 GAL OF FUEL REMAINING. THE ENG & FUEL PUMPS OPERATED NORMALLY WHEN TESTED. HOWEVER, FURTHER CHECKS REVEALED THAT WHEN FUEL IN THE AFT TANK WAS BELOW THE STAND PIPE, FUEL WOULD LEAK TO THE FRONT TANK; ALSO, THERE WAS VIRTUALLY NO INDUCED FLOW IN THE LEFT TRANSFER SYS. DISASSEMBLY REVEALED THE STANDPIPE IN THE AFT TANK WAS NOT PROPERLY ALIGNED, THUS THE O-RING WAS NOT PROPERLY SEATED, WHICH ALLOWED A LEAK. A PIECE OF MASKING TAPE WAS FND IN THE INLET TO THE LEFT TRANSFER PUMP. AS THE FRONT TANK APCHD EMPTY (DRG OPN) AIR WAS ENTRAINED IN THE FUEL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL85FA193
- Event ID
- 20001214X36658
- Case number
- ATL85FA193
- 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: 96deed26fa4760ed9d71c0e3724ded73b69390c253583621fe2ad190c2c7669c; retrieved 2026-09-23T17:11:39.823Z.