LAX86LA070 · Bell 47G2
Bell 47G2 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during an uncontrolled descent
From an unrecorded airport to 540 · Castroville, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA070
- 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 47G2
- Aircraft type
- Bell 47
- 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
- N8404E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 540 · Castroville, CA
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Uncontrolled descent
- 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 terrain/water
- 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 › Aircraft handling, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Descent, not corrected
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER STARTING A LEFT CLIMBING TURN AT THE END OF A SPRAY RUN THE PLT SAID HE FELT A 'SHUDDER IN THE AIRFRAME' AS THE ENGINE 'WENT TO FULL RPM.' THE PLT STATED THAT HE THOUGHT 'THE CLUTCH HAD SLIPPED' AND ADDED COLLECTIVE TO COMPENSATE. THE HELICOPTER BEGAN SETTLING TOWARD THE GROUND AND THE PLT SAID HE COULD NOT ARREST THE DESCENT PRIOR TO GROUND IMPACT. THE ENGINE, TRANSMISSION AND CLUTCH ASSEMBLIES WERE EXAMINED, WITH NO EVIDENCE OF PRE-IMPACT FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION EVIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA070
- Event ID
- 20001214X38447
- Case number
- LAX86LA070
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1985-12-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 42b73e89add0403c654385458bd4af5214778e188f924fa3b12567349d38b171; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:34:40.157Z.