DFW05LA239 · Bell 206B
Helitrans Bell 206B · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR) to Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR)
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW05LA239
- 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
- N230CA
- Operator
- Helitrans
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR), Baton Rouge, LATo Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR), Baton Rouge, 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Directional control, 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 514-hour commercial pilot was conducting a photo mission with three passengers onboard in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. While orbiting a neighborhood at an altitude of approximately 500 feet above ground level at 40 knots, the helicopter suddenly pitched-up and entered an uncommanded right spin. The pilot applied left anti-torque pedal, but there was no response. He then lowered the nose and followed the right turn. In an attempt to stop the rotation, the pilot lowered the collective and this appeared to help. But then the pilot saw a row of power lines in front of him, so he pulled back on the cyclic and up on the collective to clear them. The helicopter subsequently turned 180 degrees and impacted the roof of a house, where it came to rest. The pilot and the passengers reported that a military Black Hawk helicopter was hovering above them as they exited the helicopter, and assisted in their recovery. The operator was concerned that the Black Hawk's proximity to the helicopter may have caused excessive downwash, which resulted in a loss of tail rotor effectiveness. However, the pilot said that he had seen many military helicopters operating in the area and was unable to confirm that the Black Hawk had contributed to the accident and was unsure as to what caused the loss of tail rotor effectiveness.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control after encountering a loss of tail rotor effectiveness. A contributing factor was the lack of suitable terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW05LA239
- Event ID
- 20050930X01554
- Case number
- DFW05LA239
- 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: 589689d9539376dc26d34bc130c20c7e82b64691f758c7817c1affa0c00b53a9; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:54:26.196Z.