ANC04FA049 · Bell 206L-3
Bell 206L-3 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
From Deadhorse Airport (SCC) to Deadhorse Airport (SCC)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC04FA049
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Instrument 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
- N130AL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Deadhorse Airport (SCC), Deadhorse, AKTo Deadhorse Airport (SCC), Deadhorse, AK
- 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
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial helicopter pilot was flying three passengers to several remote sites in northern Alaska to collect snow samples. The snow was being collected from flat, featureless terrain. The pilot said that he was able to reach five of the six predetermined sites, but was unable to reach the sixth site due to low fog, reduced visibility, and flat light conditions. While attempting to return to the base camp, he encountered an area of low fog, which reduced his ability to discern a horizon. He said that the visibility diminished so that he was unable to discern any topographic features, and he elected to make a precautionary landing to wait for improved visibility. After about 3 minutes, he decided to return to the base camp. Just after takeoff, flat light conditions, and worsening fog conditions, reduced his ability to recognize any topographical features on the snow-covered tundra. He said that he initiated another landing, and lowered the collective when he believed the landing gear skids were on the ground. The skids were not on the ground, and the helicopter subsequently descended, and rolled to the right on ground contact. The helicopter continued to roll to the right, and the main rotor blades struck the ground. After striking the ground, the main rotor blades sheered off, and one main rotor blade struck the top left portion of the helicopter's cabin, passed through the left side of the cabin, and struck the passenger seated in the front left seat. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the helicopter.
Probable cause
The pilot's continued VFR flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), and his spatial disorientation and loss of control during a subsequent landing. Factors associated with the accident are flat light and whiteout conditions, fog, and snow-covered terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC04FA049
- Event ID
- 20040506X00562
- Case number
- ANC04FA049
- 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 2004-05-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a3798e715402d11d87199fde6e7fa13a8fef655be5329d6488400b068cff947c; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:00:53.216Z.