DEN86LA007 · Bell BH 206BII
Bell BH 206BII · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From HENDERSON, CO to McElroy Airfield (20V)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN86LA007
- 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 BH 206BII
- Aircraft type
- Bell BH-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
- N1959G
- Operator
- Phillip J. Spano, JR · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From HENDERSON, COTo McElroy Airfield (20V), Kremmling, CO
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 control in flight
- 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
- Stall/spin
- 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
- Aircraft performance › Exceeded
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Lack of total experience in type of aircraft
- Pilot in command › Performance data, not followed
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, uncontrolled
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE MANEUVERING TO OBSERVE WILDLIFE, THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO HOVER OUT OF GND EFFECT IN STEEP MTNS TERRAIN AT 9800 FT MSL AT 2550 LBS GW WITH A 7-10KT TAILWIND. ACCORDING TO ACFT HOGE CHARTS IN THE POH, THE ACFT WAS NOT CAPABLE OF HOGE IN THE CONDITIONS OF ALT, GW, AND TAILWIND AT THE ACCIDENT SITE. THE ATTEMPT TO EXCEED THE ACFT CAPABILITIES RESULTED A RT SPIN FROM WHICH THE PILOT WAS NOT ABLE TO RECOVER DUE TO LOW ALT AGL. THE ACFT DESCENDED OUT OF CONTROL UNTIL IMPACT WITH TREES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN86LA007
- Event ID
- 20001214X38005
- Case number
- DEN86LA007
- 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: f38abe8c4cf9a05a89b94fb4e7e83baa5fb7203751fe698a3e9326ba4efe8480; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:08:02.188Z.