Rotor Aids Bell 212 accident
Bell 212 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From HIGH ISLAND BLK to ICY · INTRACOASTAL CI, LA
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FA145
- 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
- 2 · 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 212
- Aircraft type
- Bell 212
- 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
- N5752W
- Operator
- Rotor-Aids
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From HIGH ISLAND BLKTo ICY · INTRACOASTAL CI, 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Rotor drive system, tail rotor drive shaft › Disconnected
- Rotor drive system, tail rotor drive shaft › Other
- Rotor drive system, tail rotor drive shaft › Overtemperature
- Rotor drive system, tail rotor drive shaft › Worn
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER WAS IN CRUISE FLIGHT WHEN A SUDDEN AND SEVERE RIGHT YAW OCCURRED. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT WAS AUTOROTATED TO A DITCHING IN ROUGH WATER. TOUCHDOWN WAS MADE ON TOP OF A WAVE, THEN THE HELICOPTER ROLLED OVER. THE SURVIVORS DID NOT GET THE RAFT OUT. ANOTHER HELICOPTER ARRIVED BUT COULD NOT LAND IN THE ROUGH SEA. A LIFE RAFT WAS DROPPED, BUT IT WAS BLOWN DOWNWIND BY THE TIME A SURVIVOR (THE COPILOT) SWAM TO IT AND GOT IT INFLATED. THE COPILOT WAS UNABLE TO PADDLE AGAINST THE WIND TO THE OTHER SURVIVORS. THE HELICOPTER SANK BEFORE A RESCUE BOAT ARRIVED. HOWEVER, IT WAS RECOVERED, LATER. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE FEMALE PORTION OF A TAIL ROTOR COUPLING, PN 204-040-604-5, HAD FAILED DUE TO LACK OF LUBRICATION. THE PROPER TYPE OF LUBRICANT HAD BEEN USED. AN EXAM OF THE COUPLING SEAL, PN 204-040-611-1, REVEALED TEARS AND A CIRCUMFERENTIAL CUT, .14 TO .16 INCH LONG. GREASE WAS FOUND THROUGHOUT THE CUT AREA. THE HELICOPTER HAD ACCUMULATED 1226 HRS TOTAL TIME AND 376 HRS SINCE OVERHAUL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FA145
- Event ID
- 20020917X02107
- Case number
- FTW82FA145
- 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: f8100f1f68bc14f326fdc91fc2fcd5a939dbd294b77a490c92ca4b0245b3542f; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:32:54.890Z.