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ANC84LA089 · Bell 205A-1

12 Jun 1984 · Talkeetna, AK, United States

Bell 205A-1 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route

From GOLD CREEK, AK to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
ANC84LA089
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 205A-1

Aircraft type
Bell 205
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
N58116
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From GOLD CREEK, AKTo 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
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
Airframe, component or system failure
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

  • Rotor system, main rotor blade › Corroded
  • Rotor system, main rotor blade › Cracked
  • Rotor system, main rotor blade › Failure, partial
  • Rotor system, main rotor blade › Fatigue

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE PLT HAD JUST PICKED UP AN EXTERNAL 'SLING' LOAD OF 2700 LBS OF BACK-FILL IN A CEMENT BUCKET. AT 900 FT AGL THE ACFT STARTED A VERTICAL VIBRATION. AS COLLECTIVE WAS BOTTOMED A LARGE PIECE OF ONE MAIN ROTOR BLADE SEPARATED. THE PLT SAID HE JETTISONED THE LOAD AND THE 100 FT LINE AND LANDED THE ACFT IN A MOUNTAIN SIDE CLEARING. DURING THE POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION A PORTION OF THE MAIN ROTOR BLADE ABOUT 32 INCHES LONG WAS FOUND MISSING. THIS FAILURE STARTED WITH A CRACK ON THE BLADE. WHILE ON THE GROUND THE DROOPING OF THE BLADE WOULD TEND TO CLOSE AND MASK THE CRACK ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BLADE WHERE IT WOULD MORE READILY HAVE BEEN SEEN. A GENERAL AVIATION AIRWORTHINESS ALERT STATED THAT FRACTURES ON HELICOPTER BLADES OCCUR AT LOCATIONS WHERE BLADE DAMAGE EXISTED. DAMAGE RANGING FROM SCRATCHES, DENTS, NICKS OR CORROSION PITS BECAME A POTENTIAL POINT FOR STRESS TO CONCENTRATE AND PROPAGATE INTO CRACKS LEADING TO BLADE FAILURE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ANC84LA089
Event ID
20001214X39786
Case number
ANC84LA089
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: 87a9ee90ed7ce88ff2d9f2ea9e7e25ec26649551ade49ee1aab4dc0715616624; retrieved 2026-09-23T20:19:52.828Z.