[ems] Bell 206L-1 accident
Bell 206L-1 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From H63 · West Plains, MO to SPF · Springfield, MO
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC86FA020
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Instrument 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
- N27689
- Operator
- [ems]
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From H63 · West Plains, MOTo SPF · Springfield, MO
- 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
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- 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
- Wire, static; Wire, transmission; Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER DEPARTING WEST PLAINS HOSPITAL FOR SPRINGFIELD, TRANSFERRING A CRITICALLY INJURED PATIENT, THE PLT OF THE EMS HELICOPTER BEGAN TO ENCOUNTER DETERIORATING WEATHER. THE PLT WAS CONCERNED ABOUT THE CLOSE SPREAD OF TEMPERATURE AND DEW POINT, BUT HAD ADEQUATE CEILINGS AND VISIBILITIES ALONG HIS ROUTE OF FLT TO CONTINUE. AFTER CRESTING A HILL WEST OF MANSFIELD, MISSOURI, ALONG MISSOURI HWY 60, THE PLT ENCOUNTERED LOWERING CEILINGS AND LIGHT FOG. THE PLT STATED HE DID NOT LIKE THE CONDITION OF THE WEATHER AFTER PASSING THE HILL AND INITIATED A RIGHT TURN TO PROCEED BACK TO MANSFIELD. POWER LINES WERE IMPACTED BY THE HELICOPTER IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE PLT INITIATED THE TURN. THE PLT DID NOT REALIZE THAT HE HAD DESCENDED LOW ENOUGH TO STRIKE THE POWER LINES THAT WERE OBSCURED IN FOG AND LOW CLOUDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC86FA020
- Event ID
- 20001214X38101
- Case number
- MKC86FA020
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1985-11-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6e29aec201109bc2fe6f740b359662c5ece6a802e17e8725594e98b3c26b6be2; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:24:30.165Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N27689; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.