LAX85FA036 · Bell 206B
Bell 206B · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
From Banning, CA to John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX85FA036
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Unknown
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
- N20DB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Banning, CATo John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, 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 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 · 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 collision with object
- 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
- Wire, transmission; Guy wire
- 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
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
APPROXIMATELY ONE MIN BEFORE THE ACCIDENT THE PILOT CONTACTED THE TOWER AT NORTON AIR FORCE BASE FOR CLEARANCE THROUGH THEIR TRAFFIC AREA. HE REPORTED INITIALLY THAT HE WAS AT 300 FT AGL. SECONDS LATER HE TRANSMITTED THAT HE WAS AT 100 FT OVER THE FREEWAY. THE REQUEST WAS APPROVED AT OR BELOW 2700 FT MSL WHILE IN THE CONTROL ZONE. THE HELICOPTER FIRST CONTACTED WIRES AT 100 FT AGL. IT THEN DESCENDED INTO A SECOND WIRE AT 80 FT AND A GUY WIRE AT 60 FT. ELEVATION AT THE SIGHT WAS 2,400 FT MSL. THE SITE WAS ABOUT 11 MILES EAST OF NORTON AIR FORCE BASE IN UNCONTROLLED AIRSPACE. WX AT NORTON WAS SKY PARTLY OBSCURED, VISIBILITY 1.5 MILES IN FOG. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, AT THE REQUEST OF THE FRONT SEAT PASSENGER THE PILOTS PLANNED ROUTE OF FLIGHT WAS CHANGED. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE WAS AWARE OF WIRES IN THE AREA AND HAD SLOWED TO 60 KTS AND TURNED THE LANDING LIGHT ON IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN HIS VISUAL LOOKOUT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX85FA036
- Event ID
- 20001214X41392
- Case number
- LAX85FA036
- 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 1984-10-31.
- API snapshot SHA-256: daae8cfe0d27ec74bfed899232f6e71509fedef1a6ab23a4041e0d5fedba3f42; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:16:06.320Z.