DEN84LA036 · Bell 205A-1
Bell 205A-1 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Cokeville, WY to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN84LA036
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 205A-1
- Aircraft type
- Bell 205
- 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
- N1084N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cokeville, WYTo 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT REPORTED THAT SNOW HAD BEEN FALLING REGULARILY FOR THE PREVIOUS FEW DAYS BEFORE THE FLT. HE DEPARTED THE STAGING AREA WITH 12 DRILL CREW MEMBERS. AT THAT TIME, THE VISIBILITY WAS 2 TO 3 MI & A CEILING OF 800 TO 1000 FT. THE PLT FLEW 9 OF THE PASSENGERS TO A SEISMIC LINE ON AN 8000 FT RIDGE LINE, THEN FLEW THE OTHER PASSENGERS TO THE VALLEY FLOOR, WHERE THEIR EQUIPMENT WAS LOCATED. DURING ARRIVAL, THERE WAS A 500 FT CEILING, THE VISIBILITY WAS ABOUT 1 MI & SNOW WAS FALLING LIGHTLY. WHILE LANDING, THE ROTOR WASH KICKED UP CONSIDERABLE SNOW, BUT THE PLT WAS ABLE TO USE THE DRILL RIGS FOR A VISUAL REFERENCE. HE TOOK OFF AGAIN TO RETURN TO THE STAGING AREA, BUT AFTER FLYING APRX 1/4 MI, THE SNOW SHOWER INCREASED & THE VISIBILITY BEGAN DROPPING. HE DECIDED TO LAND & WAIT FOR THE WX TO IMPROVE. HOWEVER, AS HE APPROACHED THE GROUND, ALL VISUAL REFERENCE WAS LOST DUE TO SNOW KICKED UP FROM THE ROTOR WASH. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE HELICOPTER DRIFTED TO THE RIGHT, THE RIGHT SKID DUG INTO THE SNOW & THE HELICOPTER ROLLED OVER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN84LA036
- Event ID
- 20001214X45269
- Case number
- DEN84LA036
- 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: a21ddea154af6cdcf4935de2949cb1c7edb7e750fb44e504be9ae7d6a81b8420; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:49:48.641Z.