ANC03GA023 · Bell 212
National Science Foundation Bell 212 · Accident: cargo shift while maneuvering
From McMurdo Station to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC03GA023
- 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
- Government
- 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 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
- N1079U
- Operator
- National Science Foundation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McMurdo StationTo not recorded
- 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- Cargo shift
- 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
- External load cable/hook › Sheared
- Fuel system, fuel control › Switched off
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, excessive
- Throttle/power lever, bellcrank › Bumped
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The public use helicopter was lifting a 20' by 14' by 6" thick platform, weighing about 1250 pounds, on a 100 foot long line. The airline transport pilot had successfully lifted and transported three similar platforms with the accident helicopter just before the accident flight, although he had difficulty controlling the load on two flights, and landed to check the helicopter for damage after the third flight. On the accident flight, the pilot reported a severe jolt to the airframe while the helicopter was approximately 200' AGL, and the load was approximately 100' AGL, followed by an immediate loss of engine power. Ground witnesses noted that the platform swung from right to left, fore and aft, and rose vertically several times. The platform rose one final time, and "slammed down" on the long line, breaking the platform in half. Witnesses said they then saw white vapor coming from the helicopter, the load was jettisoned, and the helicopter descended very rapidly, impacting on a frozen lake. Postaccident examination of the engines disclosed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical anomalies. An inspection of the external cargo hook and its support structure in the belly of the helicopter, revealed a sheared bolt at the top of the hook support assembly, which allowed the assembly to move and change shape. Witness marks indicate that the hook assembly overrode its container ring, and struck the fuel crossover lines, throttle control bell cranks for both engines, and the throttle position push/pull tubes. Both fuel crossover lines were pulled from their respective fuel tanks, and the throttle position bell cranks were found in the engine idle cutoff position, with the crossover lines crushed against them.
Probable cause
The pilot's continued operation of the helicopter with an unstable external load, which resulted in damage to the cargo hook assembly, adjacent throttle controls, and subsequent loss of engine power, precipitating an emergency descent and impact with terrain. Factors associated with the accident were the load oscillations, and the separation of the fuel crossover lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC03GA023
- Event ID
- 20030127X00113
- Case number
- ANC03GA023
- 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: 5e8717672e0575aee8b7fe8e37bfc60a830e86c1ba841ebebf63bc65d949ed60; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:18:01.843Z.