DEN85LA033 · Bell 206B-III
Bell 206B-III · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN85LA033
- 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-III
- 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
- N5018L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT SETTLED DURING AN EMER LNDG AFTER THE PLT SAID THE ENGINE FAILED. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE ACFT RECEIVED MINOR MAINTENANCE ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT, CONSISTING OF CHANGING THE PITCH CHAIN LINKS ON THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES. THEPLT MADE A WRITTEN STATEMENT AFTER THE ACCIDENT IN WHICH WAS STATED, 'THE ACFT WAS RUNNING APRX 15 MIN BEFORE TAKEOFF WITH THE ANTI-ICE OPERATING. I PULLED INTO A HOVER APRX 6-7 FT AGL, SLOWLY, TO INSURE THAT THERE WAS NOTHING ATTACHED TOTHE SKIDS. I THEN MOVED SIDEWAYS FROM THE LANDING ZONE TO CLEAR THE AREA OF BLOWING SNOW FROM THE ACFT. I TURNED INTO THE WIND & STARTED TO APPLY POWER TO CLIMB OUT OVER ANOTHER FENCE AT ABOUT 10-15 AGL. AT APRX 10-15 MPH THE ENG OUT LIGHT & HORN SOUNDED & I APPLIED RT TORQUE PEDAL TO CORRECT FOR YAW. WE STARTED TO SETTLE TO THE GROUND & I APPLIED COLLECTIVE TO STOP THE DESCENT & LANDED ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF A DITCHING.' THE ROTOR OR RPM DECAYED & THE ACFT ROCKED NOSE TO TAIL & THE MAIN BLADES HIT THE TAIL BOOM. AFTER THE ACCIDENT THE ENG RAN NORMALLY AT ALL POWER SETTINGS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN85LA033
- Event ID
- 20001214X41561
- Case number
- DEN85LA033
- 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: 5728daab4cd83c0d6360d923027fadcfbda5a3894167a5bd0f29bb19bce13be3; retrieved 2026-09-23T18:48:02.489Z.