DFW05CA044 · Bell B206L-1
Bell B206L-1 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From SS-198, GM to Harry P Williams Memorial Airport (PTN)
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW05CA044
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Bell B206L-1
- Aircraft type
- Bell B206
- 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
- N5007F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From SS-198, GMTo Harry P Williams Memorial Airport (PTN), Patterson, 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 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
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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 starvation
- 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 › Flare, not possible
- Pilot in command › Fuel boost pump selector position, not selected
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot lifted off and approximately 50 feet above ground level (agl), the engine lost power. The helicopter was at an airspeed and altitude combination (below height/velocity curve), and the pilot was unable to execute a successful autorotation. The helicopter contacted the ground in a high rate of descent, resulting in the main rotor blade contacting the tail boom. At the time of the incident the helicopter contained less then 200 pounds of fuel and the pilot had not engaged the fuel boost pump circuit breakers before liftoff. The Bell 206L-1 flight manual, revision 21, indicated the following: "Warning: If both fuel boost pumps fail, unusable fuel may be as high as 150 pounds due to inability to transfer fuel from the forward cells."
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to fuel starvation resulting from the pilot's failure to activate the fuel boost pumps prior to takeoff. A contributing factor was that the helicopter was at an airspeed and altiutude combination (below height/velocity curve) which precluded the pilot from executing a successful autorotation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW05CA044
- Event ID
- 20050120X00083
- Case number
- DFW05CA044
- 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: b81b69c41e5a24c3507fc3edeebf620c37b7b190bfa203db22fbb083a3a6cf2a; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:26:40.655Z.