NYC82FGM11 · Bell 47G-3B-1
Evergreen Helicopters Bell 47G-3B-1 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Kittanning, PA to Kittanning, PA
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC82FGM11
- 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
- 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 47G-3B-1
- Aircraft type
- Bell 47
- 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
- N9276Z
- Operator
- Evergreen Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kittanning, PATo Kittanning, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Kittanning, PA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER WAS ON A POWERLINE PATROL FLIGHT WITH THREE OCCUPANTS ON BOARD. WHILE PROCEEDING ALONG THE POWERLINE WITH A TAILWIND, THE PILOT STARTED TO CLIMB OVER A HILL. HE STATED TO THE PASSENGERS THAT HE WAS UNABLE TO OUT CLIMB THE HILL, THEN CIRCLED TO THE RIGHT AND GAINED MORE AIRSPEED TO TOP THE HILL. AFTER TOPPING THE HILL, HE STARTED DOWN THE OTHER SIDE WHILE TO THE LEFT AND ABOUT 10 FT ABOVE THE POWERLINE WITH AN AIRSPEED OF 0 TO 20 KTS. ABOUT 1/4 MILE DOWN THE HILL AND AT 200 FT LOWER ELEVATION, THE HELICOPTER APPROACHED ANOTHER LINE THAT CROSSED OVER THE LINE THAT WAS BEING PATROLLED. AT ABOUT THAT TIME, THE HELICOPTER ENTERED A STEEP TURN OVER THE LINE BEING PATROLLED AND BELOW THE OTHER. THE HELICOPTER AVOIDED THE LINES, BUT CRASHED. THE TRANSMISSION SHEARED DURING IMPACT, MOVED FORWARD, AND CAUSED FATAL INJURY TO THE PILOT. THE PASSENGERS SUSPECTED A LOSS OF POWER, BUT NO PRECRASH FAILURE WAS FOUND. AC61-13B WARNS OF POSSIBLE "SETTLING WITH POWER" IN STEEP POWER APPROACHES NEAR ZERO AIRSPEED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC82FGM11
- Event ID
- 20020917X04037
- Case number
- NYC82FGM11
- 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: 75ebe9b9ff51f8d371688c30c297b3e160690c856612976a9f275904e6744ce5; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:14:21.335Z.