NYC82FA080 · MBB BO-105C
Keystone Helicopter Corporatio MBB BO-105C · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From NEW RINGGOLD, PA to Allentown, PA
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC82FA080
- 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
- 4 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
MBB BO-105C
- Aircraft type
- MBB BO-105
- 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
- N1022H
- Operator
- Keystone Helicopter Corporatio
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From NEW RINGGOLD, PATo Allentown, PA
- 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
- 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
- Loss of control 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER WAS LEASED BY THE ALLENTOWN SACRED HEART HOSPITAL. AT 2236 EDT, THE PILOT, WHO WAS STANDING BY FOR DUTY, OBTAINED A WEATHER BRIEFING. LATER, AT 2312, THERE WAS A REQUEST FOR A MED-EVAC HELICOPTER TO RESPOND TO A CAR ACCIDENT. THE HELICOPTER DEPARTED 10 MIN LATER AND LANDED AT THE SITE AT 2343 EDT. A SHORT TIME LATER, THE HELICOPTER LIFTED OFF WITH A PATIENT, TWO NURSES AND A PILOT ON BOARD. AT THAT TIME, THE WEATHER CONDITIONS WERE VERY RAINY WITH A MILD BREEZE. REPORTEDLY, THE HELICOPTER DEPARTED TOWARD THE SOUTHEAST WITH THE SEARCHLIGHT ON. A SHORT TIME LATER, IT IMPACTED ON RISING TERRAIN IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE AND IN A RIGHT BANK. A WITNESS REPORTED SEEING THE HELICOPTER CROSS OVER TREES WITH THE SEARCHLIGHT ON, POINTING DOWN, BEFORE IMPACT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS DESTROYED BY IMPACT AND FIRE. ROTATIONAL DAMAGE WAS FOUND IN BOTH ENGINE. AN FAA FORM 337, DATED 4/27/82, REVEALED THAT A NIGHTSUN SEARCHLIGHT HAD BEEN INSTALLED AND THE WEIGHT AND BALANCE HAD BEEN ADJUSTED FOR THE INSTALLATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC82FA080
- Event ID
- 20020917X02545
- Case number
- NYC82FA080
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1982-04-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4005e2e41fe9a9b8b391f500616ca863c90d736b6bdb2868fc4015960ef9dae9; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:28:19.508Z.