FTW03FA145 · Bell Shelby Aero 47G2
Versatile Helicopters Bell Shelby Aero 47G2 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Ardmore Downtown Executive Airport (1F0) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03FA145
- 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
- 2 · 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 Shelby Aero 47G2
- Aircraft type
- Bell Shelby Aero 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
- N1774
- Operator
- Versatile Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ardmore Downtown Executive Airport (1F0), Ardmore, OKTo 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Descent, uncontrolled
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After completing a precision instrument landing approach (ILS), the pilot of the accident helicopter requested a clearance for another ILS approach. Prior to the outer marker, the pilot broke off the ILS approach and proceeded to execute a very high frequency omni range (VOR) approach at the departure airport. After completion of the VOR approach, the helicopter over flew the airport and departed the area to the south. Shortly thereafter, a pilot reported that he heard a radio transmission from the pilot of the helicopter that they were having "throttle linkage problems and were trying to make it back to the airport." A few minutes later the witness heard the pilot state "they were in the pattern and for all aircraft to clear the way", no further radio transmissions were received. Another witness, who was fishing approximately one mile east of the accident site, reported that as the helicopter flew by him in a level attitude, he heard "3 bangs," and then "the engine became silent." The witness stated that the main rotor blades were turning, and the helicopter started descending at a "slight angle." The witness lost site of the helicopter when it descended below a tree line. A third witness located approximately one half north of the accident site reported observing the helicopter descending through approximately 200 feet, "really fast nose first." He stated "all he could hear was the [rotor]blades like they were trying to catch air." No structural or mechanical anomalies were observed during the examination of the helicopter.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to control the rate of descent, which resulted in an improper touchdown of the helicopter. A contributing factor was the loss of throttle control for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03FA145
- Event ID
- 20030514X00663
- Case number
- FTW03FA145
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2003-05-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7b4de59f04491a55686239b10a5539786990a13fbc0c8742e30fb1d5f2ffe1e3; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:15:11.260Z.