ATL82FIJ03 · Bell 206B
Bell 206B · Accident: loss of engine power during takeoff
From Gate City, VA to Gate City, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL82FIJ03
- 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
- 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
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
- N5002X
- Operator
- Imperial Intn'L
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gate City, VATo Gate City, VA
- 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THIS WAS AN EXTERNAL LOAD OPERATION TO MOVE SEISMOGRAPHIC OIL EXPLORATION EQUIPMENT. THE PILOT FLEW TO THE LOADING ZONE WITH A 150 FT CABLE AND AN ALUMINUM BUCKET. AFTER ARRIVING, HE LOWERED THE BUCKET AND HOVERED WHILE THE BUCKET WAS LOADED. THE PILOT THEN LIFTED THE LOADED BUCKET TO ABOUT 40 FT AGL. AT ABOUT THAT TIME, HE TRANSMITTED THAT HE HAD A PROBLEM AND HAD TO SIT THE HELICOPTTER DOWN. THE BUCKET CAME DOWN HARD ABOUT 10 FT FROM ITS PICKUP POINT AND THE HELICOPTER MOVED TO A CLEAR AREA. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE HELICOPTER HIT THE TOP OF A TREE, THEN CRASH INTO THE GROUND ABOUT 90 FT FROM THE TREE. THE ALUMINUM BUCKET HAD BEEN DRAGGED ABOUT 200 FT BEFORE IT CAME TO REST AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TREE. THE CABLE WAS DRAPED ACROSS THE TREE AND THE RIGHT SKID BUT WAS FOUND RELEASED. AN EXAMINATION REVEALED NO PRECRASH MALFUNCTION OF THE FLIGHT CONTROLS AND NO MECHANICAL FAILURE OF THE ENGINE WAS VERIFIED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL82FIJ03
- Event ID
- 20020917X02864
- Case number
- ATL82FIJ03
- 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: beb710d164eb4125dd541dec623308168113d2d47de8e71c8202b05bdcd9c57f; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:15:22.646Z.