LAX83LA117 · Bell BH 206-L111 BH 206-L11
Energy Fuels Nuclear Bell BH 206-L111 BH 206-L11 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From SAVANIC MINE, AZ to CUNNINGHAM MINE, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83LA117
- 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 BH 206-L111 BH 206-L11
- Aircraft type
- Bell BH-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
- N3898Y
- Operator
- Energy Fuels Nuclear
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From SAVANIC MINE, AZTo CUNNINGHAM MINE, AZ
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Rotor drive system, tail rotor drive shaft bearing › Failure, total
- Rotor drive system, tail rotor drive shaft bearing › Undertorqued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER THE ROTORCRAFT TOOK OFF TO A HOVER THE PILOT DID A PEDAL TURN FOR A DOWN CANYON DEPARTURE. AFTER THE HOVER TURN THE PILOT SLID TO THE RIGHT TO CLEAR SOME OBSTACLES AND WHEN THE ROTORCRAFT MOVED LATERALLY ABOUT 25 FEET THE PILOT HEARD A BANG. THE LEFT PEDAL WAS SLACKED AND THE ROTORCRAFT BEGAN TO SPIN TO THE RIGHT UNTIL IT CAME TO REST 10 DEGREES NOSE DOWN. THERE WERE NO INJURIES AND NO FIRE. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE TAIL ROTOR SHAFT ASSEMBLY FAILED BETWEEN NUMBER 3 AND 4 HANGER BEARINGS. THE NUTS THAT HOLD EACH ASSEMBLY TOGETHER WERE MISSING. THE BOLTS WERE NOT SHEARED. ONE WAS FOUND IN THE ROCKS BELOW THE TAIL ROTOR. THE OTHER WAS STILL IN PLACE. NO NUTS WERE FOUND AT THE CRASH SCENE. THE FACTORY RECOMMENDED BLUE DOTS WERE MISSING WHEN THE NEW NUTS WERE REPLACED BY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83LA117
- Event ID
- 20001214X42254
- Case number
- LAX83LA117
- 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: f64f204c4aa5eab645c87d1b5ad37846c81864cfc8967b60fcbb4b519a0c0edc; retrieved 2026-09-23T23:01:17.324Z.