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ATL84LA025 · Bell 206B

20 Oct 1983 · NR. MCADAMS, MS, United States

Bell 206B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach

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Event

NTSB case
ATL84LA025
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
N2183P
Operator
Unknown
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 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
Approach
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)
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
Fuel exhaustion
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

  • Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
  • Pilot in command › Diverted attention
  • Pilot in command › Fuel supply, misjudged

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE HELICOPTER WAS BEING USED ON AN AERIAL RIGHT-OF-WAY-BURNING FLT. THE PLT REPORTED THAT DUE TO THE TERRAIN & OBSTACLES, HIS ATTENTION WAS TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE HELICOPTER DURING THE BURNING OPERATION. AFTER COMPLETING THE BURNING OPERATION FOR THAT FLT, HE CHECKED THE ACFT FUEL QUANTITY & NOTED AN INDICATION OF 2 TO 3 GAL REMAINING. THE PLT IMMEDIATELY HEADED TOWARD THE LANDING AREA. APRX 1/4 MI FROM THE LANDING SITE, THE FUEL PUMP, ENG OUT & LOW RPM CAUTION LIGHTS ILLUMINATED AS THE ENG FLAMED OUT. SINCE THE HELICOPTER WAS STILL OVER TREES, COLLECTIVE PITCH WAS HELD UNTIL THEY WERE CLEARED. SUBSEQUENTLY, THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT RPM TO CUSHION THE LANDING & A HARD LANDING OCCURRED. THE FUEL STRAINER WAS CHECKED AFTER THE ACCIDENT & WAS FOUND TO BE EMPTY.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL84LA025
Event ID
20001214X44754
Case number
ATL84LA025
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: acf878861e60ce166a091592dc2e8bb80301ec0494be768c71547fe189013ecf; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:12:06.867Z.