DEN83FA217 · Bell 206L-1
Air Services Int'L Bell 206L-1 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83FA217
- 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 206L-1
- 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
- N3900Q
- Operator
- Air Services Int'L
- 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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 · climb to 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
- 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 PLT TOOK OFF WITH AN 800 LB SLING LOAD & USED 100% TORQUE TO EXPEDITE CLEARING POWER LINES. WHEN CLEAR OF THE LINES, HE STARTED A CLIMBING TURN & REDUCED THE TORQUE TO ABOUT 80%. AT APRX 300 FT AGL & 50 TO 60 KTS, THE ENG BEGAN SURGING WHICH CAUSED THE HELICOPTER TO YAW REPEATEDLY. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ENG LOST POWER & THE PLT RELEASED HIS LOAD & MADE A FORCED LANDING IN A WOODED AREA. HE USED THE COLLECTIVE TO EXTEND HIS FLT TO AN OPEN AREA. HE REACHED THE INTENDED TOUCHDOWN SPOT, BUT 'RAN OUT OF PITCH & MADE A HARD LANDING.' THE HELICOPTER ROLLED TO THE RIGHT & THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES STRUCK THE GROUND. AN EXAM OF THE HELICOPTER & ENG REVEALED NO REASON FOR THE LOSS OF POWER. THE DENSITY ALT OF THE CRASH SITE WAS COMPUTED TO BE 11,093 FT. THE HELICOPTER HAD AN ALLISON 250-C30P ENG WHICH HAD RECENTLY BEEN INSTALLED PER STC SH296NM. THE FLT MANUAL WARNED THAT WITH THIS ENG INSTALLED, BOTH FUEL BOOST PUMPS SHALL BE ON DURING ENG OPERATION. THE ENG OPERATED NORMALLY DURING A FUNCTIONAL CHECK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83FA217
- Event ID
- 20001214X44498
- Case number
- DEN83FA217
- 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: 4b39e27106060e6cfaa1d755ab4aa771722360acb9d43361ce362b5427c4b5df; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:23:31.669Z.