FTW04TA237 · Bell OH-58C
Bell OH-58C · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Jack Brooks Regional Airport (BPT) to TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04TA237
- 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
- Government
- 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 OH-58C
- Aircraft type
- Bell OH-58
- 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
- N9273T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Jack Brooks Regional Airport (BPT), Beaumont, TXTo TX
- 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A single-engine public use helicopter was destroyed when it impacted water while maneuvering over a lake at night during a search mission. The 2,475-hour commercial pilot reported that he had set the altimeter to the current barometric pressure setting of 29.75 inches of Mercury prior to departure. Then, he and the pilot-rated passenger departed and made several passes over the lake at 500 feet, then descended to 300 feet for better visual reference of an object on the water. The crew still had difficulty identifying the object and the pilot descended to 200 feet. The pilot reported that there was absolutely no reference to the horizon, so he told the passenger that he would be "on the instruments." As the pilot made a right hand turn, he said the altimeter indicated a slow descent from 200 feet, so he pulled back slightly on the cyclic and increased collective pitch to start a smooth, climbing right turn. As the pilot did so, the passenger shouted, "look out!" The pilot pulled the cyclic back sharply and looked out the windscreen. The pilot thought that he was about to strike a tower because the altimeter indicated an altitude between 150 and 175 feet. The pilot then saw a "black wall" through the windscreen and they collided with the water. Examination of the altimeter revealed that it was not impact damaged, but did exhibit water and corrosion damage. It displayed a barometric pressure setting of 29.66 inches of Mercury and an altitude of approximately 110 feet. Due to corrosion, the unit could not be bench tested. The face of the instrument was removed, and excessive corrosion was observed inside the unit and around the gears. The barrel shaft (turn knob) was locked, but it was engaged to the barrel. The number-wheels were also intact and engaged. According to the aircraft checklist, the altimeter was to be set and checked by the pilot prior to take-off.
Probable cause
**This probable cause was modified on 2/22/2016. Please see the public docket for this accident for additional details.**
The pilot's failure to maintain a safe altitude, resulting in collision with the water. A factor was the dark night.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04TA237
- Event ID
- 20040920X01463
- Case number
- FTW04TA237
- 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 2004-09-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2bb2341350a62a65e3ef586ee156e46aaa62748b813b5ac84940dd46bcf1db7d; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:34:40.888Z.