FTW04LA088 · Bell 206L-3
Bell 206L-3 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Goma International Airport (GOM) to West Cameron 98, GM
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04LA088
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 206L-3
- 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
- N81SP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Goma International Airport (GOM), W. Cameron 149, GMTo West Cameron 98, GM
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Approximately 10 seconds after takeoff from an offshore platform, the 3,299-hour pilot heard a loud bang and the engine lost partial power. The pilot initiated an autorotation to the water, and then heard a subsequent bang. Prior to touchdown, the pilot attempted to inflate the floats; however, the floats did not inflate. The pilot executed a flare, "pulled in pitch"; the helicopter "still had power" and entered into a hover. The pilot reported the helicopter "seemed to still be pulling in power when the [helicopter] touched the water then rolled and the blades hit [the water]." Inspection of the engine revealed minor damage to the compressor diffuser vane and the impeller, and foreign object damage (FOD) in the combustion chamber. It was not determined if the FOD occurred prior to the impact with the water. The reason for the partial loss of engine power was not determined.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power due to undetermined reasons. A contributing factor was the emergency floats not being deployed.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04LA088
- Event ID
- 20040309X00296
- Case number
- FTW04LA088
- 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: 33469562b64bb361c2c2ff0df121895d3a35ce0457d76c02aeb1c49c483dcbce; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:29:11.574Z.