FTW04LA197 · Bell 206B
Bell 206B · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Vermillion 218, GM (no airport) to Tensas Flying Service Airport (LA53)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04LA197
- 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 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
- N133RT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Vermillion 218, GM (no airport)To Tensas Flying Service Airport (LA53), Grand Chenier, LA
- 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
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 21,440-hour pilot reported that during cruise flight in the turbine powered single-engine helicopter, the engine lost power. The pilot initiated an autorotation to the water. Examination of the helicopter revealed no anomalies with the airframe or engine. Approximately 47 gallons of fluid was drained from the main fuel cell of the helicopter, of which approximately one quart of the fluid was consistent with fuel. The pilot who flew the helicopter during the previous flight informed company maintenance personnel about fuel quantity gauge indicating a higher fuel level and was inaccurate. Review of company records indicated company maintenance personnel placed an order for a fuel quantity gauge for the accident aircraft the day before the accident. The pilot of the accident flight recently had come on duty and this was his first flight in the accident aircraft. The pilot reported to the inspector that he did not observe any discrepancies noted regarding the airworthiness of the helicopter. Review of the aircraft maintenance records revealed no entries were made regarding the inaccurate fuel quantity gauge. Examination of the helicopter revealed there were no placards for the fuel quantity gauge being inoperative.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion. Contributing factors were the fuel quantity gauge's improper fuel level indication, missing instrument placard, company maintenance personnel's improper maintenance records, disregard for company procedures, and the inadequate surveillance by company personnel.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04LA197
- Event ID
- 20040809X01167
- Case number
- FTW04LA197
- 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: 9ccd5709b6a4e1f3784331bc97e75faab426dc639bfdcdd587aab0847a801bce; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:20:55.397Z.