DFW06TA054 · Aerospatiale AS350-B2
Aerospatiale AS350-B2 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Del Rio International Airport (KDRT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW06TA054
- 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
- 0
- 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
Aerospatiale AS350-B2
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale AS350
- 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
- N840BP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Del Rio International Airport (KDRT), Del Rio, TXTo not recorded
- 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 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 › 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
The 1,672 hour commercial pilot departed the operations base near the border on a routine patrol of the Rio Grande River dividing the two countries. Upon reaching the limits of his search area he reversed course to return to home base. On the return leg he decided to search an area where he had noticed two law enforcement airboats operating north of the port of entry. The pilot reported on the Pilot/Operator Accident Report Form (NTSB Form 6120.1/2), that he recalled seeing two sets of power lines on the outbound leg of his patrol. After crossing the first set of power lines and locating the airboats he began a turn to orbit the boats. The pilot added that when he looked up and saw that he was about to hit the second set of wires, he instinctly initiated a cyclic climb to clear the wires; however, the maneuver was initiated too late and the tail rotor impacted the wires resulting in the separation of the tail rotor gear box, tail rotor assembly, and vertical fin. The pilot managed to keep the helicopter in controlled flight and elected to execute an autorotation to a clearing. The helicopter made a successful autorotation and landed upright in the middle of the river, 853 feet from the point of the wire strike. The helicopter came to rest in about 3 feet of water, and the pilot performed an emergency engine shutdown and egressed through the pilot door with assistance from the crews of the airboats.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from the unmarked transmission lines. A factor was the pilot's diverted attention while monitoring ground activity.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW06TA054
- Event ID
- 20060120X00106
- Case number
- DFW06TA054
- 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: 445ca799edb7bbf69cccae7eb294d21b4e394797fa23016a5c4ef4122627c9f8; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:15:25.799Z.