LAX01LA172 · Bell 206B
Bell 206B and Gulfstream Aerospace G-IV · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while standing
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX01LA172
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Aircraft 1 · 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
- N2102Z
- Operator
- David K. Martz · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Diego International Airport (SAN), San Diego, CATo Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF), San Diego, CA
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Gulfstream Aerospace G-IV
- Aircraft type
- Gulfstream G-IV
- Category
- Airplane
- 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
- N999GP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NVTo San Diego International Airport (SAN), San Diego, CA
- 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Ground personnel › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The main rotor blade from a helicopter collided with the right wingtip of a twin-engine transport airplane while it was being marshaled into a ramp area for parking. The helicopter was parked with its rotor blades aligned with its longitudinal axis, and was being loaded with passengers while the airplane was being marshaled onto the ramp area. Four ramp personnel were utilized at the time of the accident; three for the airplane, and one for the helicopter. The ramp person assisting the helicopter stated he escorted the passengers to the helicopter and the pilot loaded the helicopter and closed the door. The other three ramp personnel were positioned around the airplane, one at the nose and one on each wing. As the airplane's cockpit passed abeam the helicopter, the captain noticed the main rotor blades start to rotate. The airplane's first officer was concerned with the distance between the airplane's right wing and the helicopter, but received a "thumbs up" signal from the right wing walker.
Probable cause
the failure of the ground personnel to maintain clearance between two aircraft on the ramp, while one airplane was taxiing and the other was standing with the engine running and rotor blades turning.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX01LA172
- Event ID
- 20010519X00967
- Case number
- LAX01LA172
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2001-05-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e978d0486987933a1529e9f6b2c80a8930f716980c7d1c320a5ca3bf72cab9c3; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:57:55.264Z.