ANC83FA032 · Bell 206B
Bell 206B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Cordova, AK to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC83FA032
- 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
- 1 · 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
- N74PR
- Operator
- Petie Cook Chisum
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cordova, 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 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel system, ram air/induction air › Ice
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Miscellaneous equipment, not used
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER WAS ON A RESCUE/RECOVERY FLT FOR THE ALASKA STATE TROOPERS WITH THE PLT & A STATE TROOPER ON BOARD. THEY DEPARTED IN VARIABLE WX CONDITIONS TO RESCUE THE PLT OF ANOTHER ACFT. REPORTEDLY, SNOW WAS FALLING IN THE SEARCH AREA & THE WINDS WERE GUSTING BETWEEN 70 & 90 MPH. ACCORDING TO THE PLT, THE ENG FLAMED OUT DURING A TURN AT APRX 1000 FT AGL. HE BEGAN AN AUTOROTATION & TRANSMITTED A DISTRESS CALL. DURING AN APCH TO A FROZEN RIVER, HE ENCOUNTERED A TOTAL WHITEOUT CONDITION IN FOG & BLOWING SNOW AT APRX 75 TO 100 FT AGL. HE GUESSED AT THE ALT TO APPLY COLLECTIVE PITCH TO STOP THE DESCENT & SAID THAT HE EXPERIENCED VERTIGO DURING THE LAST PART OF THE DESCENT. THE ACFT IMPACTED IN A LEFT, NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE & ROLLED OVER. THE OCCUPANTS WERE UNABLE TO REACH THEIR SURVIVAL GEAR IN THE WRECKAGE. WX DELAY THEIR RESCUE & THE PASSENGER DIED FROM HYPOTHERMIA. THE ACFT WAS EQUIPPED WITH PARTICLE SEPARATORS, BUT NO SNOW DEFLECTORS WERE INSTALLED. NO MECHANICAL ENG FAILURE WAS FOUND, BUT A COATING OF ICE WAS FOUND IN THE ENG INLET.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC83FA032
- Event ID
- 20001214X41905
- Case number
- ANC83FA032
- 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: 2d1c3e5dcfb613a8d10e4d4b37dbe0a6f1e33ca86569e544b92064735c676d7b; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:16:50.188Z.