Offshore Logistics Bell Helicopter 206L-1 accident
Bell Helicopter 206L-1 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Houma, LA to Houma, LA
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FA041
- 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
- 1 · 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 Helicopter 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
- N1081H
- Operator
- Offshore Logistics
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Houma, LATo Houma, LA
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS ENROUTE TO THE SHIP SHOAL AREA IN THE GULF OF MEXICO. ANOTHER PLT WHO DEPARTED EARLIER ADVISED THE PLT THAT HE & ANOTHER ACFT HAD TURNED AROUND & WAS RETURNING AFTER ENCOUNTERING A LOW CEILING & REDUCED VISIBILITY. THE SURVIVING PAX STATED THAT THE ACFT DEPARTED SOUTHWEST CLIMBING TO ABOUT 400 FT. AS THE ACFT GOT CLOSER TO THE EDGE OF THE GULF HE COULD SEE THICKER HAZE, FOGGY LAND & THE ACFT DROPPED DOWN TO ABOUT 200 FT. IT WOULD BE CLEAR THEN OBSCURED & HE COULD NOT SEE THE GROUND. 45 SEC TO 1 MIN LATER HE COULD ONLY SEE WHITE OUT OF THE COCKPIT. NEXT HE WAS TUMBLING IN THE WATER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FA041
- Event ID
- 20020917X02096
- Case number
- FTW82FA041
- 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: 45462f22ff55fb6708b04690c6767e436f2ca0b1d2f6d04af18581a3c44b3280; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:33:32.271Z.