CHI03LA172 · Bell 206B
Bell 206B · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport (BRD) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI03LA172
- 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
- N79BH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport (BRD), Brainerd, MNTo 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
- Maneuvering · hover
- 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 control in flight
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Tail rotor effectiveness › Diminished
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter impacted trees during an autorotation following a loss of tail rotor authority. The pilot reported he was in a westbound hover about 300 feet above ground level, with a crosswind. The pilot noted the helicopter began to yaw slowly to the right and that his attempts to correct the yaw were unsuccessful. The pilot stated the yaw accelerated and the tail rotor lost effectiveness. The pilot reported he entered an autorotation after the helicopter had completed three or four rotations. The pilot noted the helicopter contacted trees and came to a stop in an upright position. An on-scene inspection of the helicopter confirmed engine and flight control continuity. A weather reporting station 3 miles to the southwest of the accident site reported the winds from 170 degrees at 14 knots, gusting to 21 knots. FAA Advisory Circular 90-95 states, "Loss of tail rotor effectiveness is a critical, low-speed aerodynamic flight characteristic which can result in a an uncommanded rapid yaw rate which does not subside of its own accord and, if not corrected, can result in the loss of aircraft control." The AC further states, "Any maneuver which requires the pilot to operate in a high-power, low-airspeed environment with a left crosswind or tailwind creates an environment where unanticipated right yaw may occur."
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain control of the helicopter due to a loss of tail rotor effectiveness. Factors contributing to this accident were the helicopter's low airspeed, low altitude, the crosswind, and the trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI03LA172
- Event ID
- 20030624X00939
- Case number
- CHI03LA172
- 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: 2998cba3071862f1e9b2fa6b106ed1f38a86cbe9508a51011a524dc93fb1ffcf; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:26:34.215Z.