FTW83LA184 · Bell 206B
Bell 206B · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH) to Austin, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83LA184
- 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
- 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
- N3898P
- Operator
- Allen Kent Northwest
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH)To Austin, 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, not performed
- Pilot in command › Rotation, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Turboshaft engine, gas generator › Foreign object
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Hempstead, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
ACORDING TO THE PILOT THE AIRCRAFT WAS IN LEVEL FLIGHT AT 800 FEET AGL WHEN THE PILOT EXPERIENCED SEVERE YAWS IN RAPID RAPID SUCCESSION. HE NOTICED HE TORQUE FLUCTUATING BETWEEN 30 AND 100 POUNDS, WENT INTO AUTOROTATION AND SELECTED A LANDING SPOT HEADING INTO THE WIND. AS THE PILOT WAS BEGINNING HIS FLARE WHEN A PASSENGER SAW POWERLINES RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. THE PILOT MADE EVASIVE CORRECTIONS BUT HIT THE WIRES AND IMPACTED THE GROUND LEFT SIDE FIRST. A TEARDOWN OF THEENGINE REVEALED AN ACCUMULATION OF FOREIGN MATTERIAL IN THE COMPRESSOR AND DIFFUSER SECTIONS OF THE ENGINE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83LA184
- Event ID
- 20001214X42678
- Case number
- FTW83LA184
- 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: d6df7a947608c79d39bfcb5a058493278939dc7e2be57c4e978b57d1a2e7c64b; retrieved 2026-09-23T22:29:23.747Z.