DEN84LA079 · Bell 47G-3B-1
Bell 47G-3B-1 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From NEAR OGDEN, UT to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN84LA079
- 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
- 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 47G-3B-1
- 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
- N90769
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From NEAR OGDEN, UTTo not recorded
- 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
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Ogden, UT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT TOOK OFF FROM A MOUNTAINOUS WORK SITE TO RETURN TO SALT LAKE CITY, UT. THE WX WAS CLEAR AT THE WORK SITE (ELEVATION 6700 FT), BUT THERE WAS FOG BELOW. AFTER ENCOUNTERING THE FOG, THE PLT HOVERED WITH A SLOW FORWARD SPEED OVER SNOW COVERED TERRAIN. A PASSENGER SAID THAT WHERE ROCKS PROTRUDED THRU THE SNOW, THEY PROVIDE A REFERENCE, THEN SUDDENLY THERE WERE NO ROCKS. AS THE HELICOPTER PROCEEDED OVER AN OPEN AREA, THE PLT LOST GROUND RECERENCES. HE SAID HE MAY HAVE EXPERIENCED VERTIGO BECAUSE HE THOUGHT HE WAS ABOUT ON THE GROUND WHEN THE HELICOPTER HIT & ROLLED OVER. THE ELEVATION AT THE CRASH SITE WAS ABOUT 5000 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN84LA079
- Event ID
- 20001214X38566
- Case number
- DEN84LA079
- 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 1984-01-31.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e47af9820bdc08eabd434662453cec0ba068ad370cbcd792cd20d207bd0947c5; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:44:45.846Z.