Evergreen Helicopters Bell 206B accident
Bell 206B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From 5RS · Wharton, TX to B-52 · MATAGORDA 520, GM
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85FA032
- 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
- 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
- N1074G
- Operator
- Evergreen Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 5RS · Wharton, TXTo B-52 · MATAGORDA 520, GM
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Rotor drive system, tail rotor gearbox(90 deg) › Separation
- Rotor system, tail rotor blade › Corroded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING CRUISE AT 600 FT AGL A BANG WAS HEARD & ACFT EXPERIENCED A VIBRATION. WHEN TURNING TOWARD A FLD TO LAND A SECOND BANG WAS HEARD & VIBRATION CEASED. HOWEVER, AN UNCOMMANDED RT YAW WAS EXPERIENCED & THE NOSE BEGAN TO TUCK UNDER. ACFT CONTACTED TERRAIN DESPITE REMEDIAL ACTION ATTEMPT BY PLT. INVESTIGATION REVEALED TAIL ROTOR ASS'Y SEPARATED FROM ACFT INFLT. LAB EXAM REVEALED GEAR BOX ATTACHMENT STUDS FAILED DUE TO LOW CYCLE FATIGUE. TAIL ROTOR BLADE, S/N TCT-7478, HAD APRX 60% OF PHENOLIC TIP BLOCK MISSING & 3 ALUMINUM RIVETS MISSING FROM TITANIUM SKIN. NO BONDING MATERIAL WAS VISIBLE ON INTERIOR BLADE SKIN. ACFT WAS OPERATED IN A SALT WATER ENVIR. ON 4/17/82, AD 82-17-04 WAS ISSUED REQ INSPECTION OF TAIL ROTOR ASS'Y SPECIFICALLY FOR TIP BLOCK SECURITY, VOID & RETENTION EVERY 7 DAYS. AD REVISED (AD 82-17-04,R1) REQ COMPLIANCE NOT TO EXCEED 25 HR INTERVALS. ON 9/3/84 REVISION 2 REQ INSPECTION REVERTING BACK TO 7 DAY INTERVAL. OPERATOR HAD NOT RECEIVED REVISION 2 & LAST INSPECTION PERFORMED ON 10/4/84 APRX 21 HRS PRIOR TO ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85FA032
- Event ID
- 20001214X41361
- Case number
- FTW85FA032
- 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: 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: fa6ab6185d54c2065b2e08ba3fefdb45b7eb533bad9da5a31503b4b25f248bb1; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:35:17.390Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N1074G; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.