MIA05CA134 · Bell 206B
Bell 206B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while taxiing
From Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (TJIG) to Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (TJIG)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA05CA134
- 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 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
- N27VT
- Operator
- Wilfred Quinones
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (TJIG), San Juan, PRTo Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (TJIG), San Juan, PR
- 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
- Taxi · aerial
- 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
- Total 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 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
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, 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
The pilot stated that earlier in the morning he flew with an individual for 1/2 hour, and following that flight secured the engine and waited for approximately 1 hour to allow the engine to cool down. Following that time, he started the engine in order to relocate the helicopter to the south side of the airport. While air taxiing, he suddenly saw the boost pump caution light illuminate followed by the engine out light and low rpm warning lights. He performed an autorotation on the south taxiway. According to the passenger, while flying 10 feet above ground level the engine seemed to start losing power. The pilot maneuvered the helicopter into the wind while descending, and further reported that when the helicopter contacted the ground, the main rotor blade contacted the tailboom causing separation of it. The pilot then secured the helicopter and asked if he was OK. Both exited the helicopter, and rescue personnel assisted them promptly. The passenger also stated that the total flight time was approximately 20-30 seconds, and at no time did he perceive any visual or audio alarms, but he is not familiar with the helicopter or its systems. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector-in-charge (IIC) who examined the accident site and helicopter, and also talked with the pilot, the pilot reported to him that the purpose of the flight was to reposition the helicopter for fuel. The pilot reported to the FAA-IIC that during his preflight inspection, the fuel gauge indicated greater than 10 gallons of fuel. Postaccident examination of the helicopter revealed less than one ounce of fuel was drained from the fuel tank, and approximately 1 liter of fuel was drained from the fuel filter canister. The fuel quantity gauge was tested and was found to indicate correct when fuel was added in five gallon increments; a total of 15 gallons were added during the test.
Probable cause
The inadequate preflight/planning by the pilot for his initiation of the flight with inadequate fuel supply, and his failure to maintain main rotor rpm following a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion which resulted in a hard landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA05CA134
- Event ID
- 20050812X01235
- Case number
- MIA05CA134
- 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: 9683b3314ee0b7f4607c0ad05e924a1bac761391438d6be2f48770a66f89f062; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:39:47.584Z.