FTW83FA097 · Bell 206L-3
Bell 206L-3 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Moore Hx Ranch Airport (7XS6) to Alice International Airport (ALI)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83FA097
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Bell 206L-3
- 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
- N3899U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Moore Hx Ranch Airport (7XS6), Houston, TXTo Alice International Airport (ALI), N ALICE, TX
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); Tree(s)
- 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 › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER COLLIDED WITH TREES AND THE GROUND IN AN ATTEMPT TO REVERSE DIRECTIONS AT LOW ALT & AT NIGHT AFTER ENCOUNTERING WEATHER. THE PLT HAD RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING AND KNEW THE WEATHER WAS BAD WITH LOW CEILINGS AND FOG. HERADIOED HE COULD MAKE IT BY FOLLOWING THE HIGHWAY AT LOW ALT. THE FLT PURPOSE WAS TO TRANSPORT AN 890 LB VALVE. THE PLT WAS IN CONTACT WITH ELLINGTON TOWER AND A POLICE HELICOPTER DURING THE INITIAL PART OF THE FLT, DISCUSSING THE WEATHER AND HIS INTENTIONS. THERE WAS NO RADIO CONTACT AFTER THE HELICOPTER LEFT THE HOUSTON AREA. THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND ABOUT 135 MILES FROM HOUSTON ORIENTED ALONG A HEADING OF ABOUT 075 DEGREES FOR A DISTANCE OF ABOUT 500 FT FROM THEINITIAL POINT OF CONTACT WITH ABOUT A 75 FT HIGH TREE. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF FLT CONTROL OR ENGINE MALFUNCTION PRIOR TO IMPACT. THE CARGO VALVE WAS FOUND 30 FT FROM THE MAIN WRECKAGE. CABIN STRUCTURE SHOWED EVIDENCE THE VALVE WAS PROPELLED THROUGH THE RIGHT SIDE OF CABIN/DOOR/CUSHION AFTER IMPACT. NO TIE DOWN CARGO STRAPS WERE FOUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83FA097
- Event ID
- 20001214X41987
- Case number
- FTW83FA097
- 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: c404cf515f1e8b39e1def20993f665a88685d9c0f08ed6079c6648083258a145; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:16:14.766Z.