DEN84LA124 · Bell 206B
Bell 206B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From an unrecorded airport to Cortez, CO
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN84LA124
- 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 206B
- 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
- N5743H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Cortez, 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
- En route · climb to 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Starvation
- Fuel system, line fitting › Leak
- Fuel system, line fitting › Loose
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE CLIMBING, THERE WAS A HEAVY SMELL OF FUEL. AT APRX 150 FT AGL ON A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING, THE ENG QUIT. THE HELICOPTER IMPACTED HARD, COLLAPSING THE SKIDS, & THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES SHEARED OF THE TAIL BOOM. DURING AN INVESTIGATION, THE FUEL HOSE B-NUT (CONNECTED TO THE INLET SIDE OF THE FUEL FILTER) WAS FOUND LOOSE & LESS THAN FINGER TIGHT. MOVING THE FUEL HOSE CAUSED A STEADY STREAM OF FUEL TO FLOW OUTWARD FROM THE B-NUT. ALSO, THE B-NUT ON THE INLET SIDE OF THE FUEL FILTER WAS FOUND TO BE FINGER TIGHT & COULD BE BACKED OFF WITH FINGER FORCE. AN ANNUAL/300 HOUR INSPECTION HAD BEEN PERFORMED ON 1/10/84, 39 HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN84LA124
- Event ID
- 20001214X39243
- Case number
- DEN84LA124
- 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: d8d5ebeea2d3848bd88f7f1955a26d798fc34641432428d135304e2014095415; retrieved 2026-09-23T20:39:24.422Z.