DEN05LA024 · Bell 206B3
Bell 206B3 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Faust, UT to Eureka, UT
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN05LA024
- 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 206B3
- 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
- N130JH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Faust, UTTo Eureka, UT
- 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
- 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 object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, he was flying above a highway and was repositioning for a filming operation. He approached a hill and climbed to an altitude of approximately 100 feet agl. After cresting the hill, he scanned the area ahead. He noticed a series of power transmission poles, paralleling the right side of the road ahead, but did not see any on the left. The pilot descended to approximately 30 feet agl to continue to follow the road. As he leveled out, at approximately 40 knots, the helicopter struck a power transmission line that stretched across the road. The pilot stated that he saw a "flash," and felt the helicopter begin to "vibrate and shake." He stated that he had cyclic and collective control, and attempted a forced landing on the road. The helicopter impacted the road, slid approximately 50 yards into the right side ditch. When the helicopter came to a stop, it rocked up on its nose, and the main rotor blades struck the ground. As the main rotor assembly pitched backward, the main rotor blades severed the tail boom, and then the main rotor hub and blade assembly separated from the mast. The helicopter remained upright and on its landing skids.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper in-flight planning and decision making and failure to maintain obstacle clearance, resulting in contact with a power transmission line. Contributing factors include the intentional low-level maneuver, the power transmission line, and the pilot's inadequate visual lookout.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN05LA024
- Event ID
- 20041119X01842
- Case number
- DEN05LA024
- 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. 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: cba8c05c85524cb9dab5c873ce10dc8ab0fed7aac8b4bbea8953f121ef324906; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:31:13.353Z.