FTW03LA080 · Bell 206B
Bell 206B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF) to Grand Prairie Municipal Airport (GPM)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03LA080
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- N115TV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF), Midland, TXTo Grand Prairie Municipal Airport (GPM), Grand Prairie, TX
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Engine instruments, tachometer › False indication
- Pilot in command › Engine instrument, misread
- Pilot in command › Engine instrument, not verified
- Pilot in command › Flare, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The single-engine helicopter impacted the ground hard during a precautionary autorotational landing following an engine overspeed indication. According to the pilot, he observed the rotor rpm increase and attempted to decrease the rpm to no avail. He then reduced the throttle and entered an autorotation. The pilot did not remember hearing an engine or rotor rpm increase. Post-accident examination of the wreckage revealed the dual tachometer indicator had a faulty turbine rpm indication and depicted an overspeed situation when functionally tested. The rotor tach generator and indication tested satisfactorily. Review of the helicopter's maintenance records revealed the dual tachometer indicator was overhauled 39 days prior to the accident, and was installed on the accident helicopter 37 days prior to the accident. No other anomalies were noted with the engine or helicopter. Examination of the engine control unit's nonvolatile information revealed there was no rpm exceedence, and in fact there was an underspeed situation recorded, which was attributed to a high engine rpm indication. The pilot more than likely noted an exceedence in engine rpm on the dual tachometer and interpreted it as a rotor rpm exceedence. He then failed to confirm the indication and autorotated with an operating engine and rotor system.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to properly interpret and confirm a faulty tachometer instrument indication and his improper flare during the ensuing precautionary autorotation, which resulted in a hard landing. Also causal was the failure of the tachometer.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03LA080
- Event ID
- 20030110X00050
- Case number
- FTW03LA080
- 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, coordinates. 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: 3dff44006090f0da626649d982cc04d9f2047b922fdcb62d325b308976abf21d; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:32:03.914Z.