ANC06LA073 · MBB BK 117A-3
Corporate Jets MBB BK 117A-3 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Triple R Ranch Airport (02FD) to Prosperity, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC06LA073
- 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
MBB BK 117A-3
- Aircraft type
- MBB BK-117
- 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
- N913EF
- Operator
- Corporate Jets
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Triple R Ranch Airport (02FD), Bonifay, FLTo Prosperity, FL
- 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 · hover in ground effect
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 commercial certificated pilot was transporting two medical crewmembers under Title 14, CFR Part 91, to a prearranged landing site to meet ambulance and fire department personnel caring for a patient. The flight was conducted during dark night conditions. The accident helicopter had predetermined landing site locations stored in its onboard GPS navigation system. The stored landing sites had been previously inspected for obstruction clearance and overall suitability. After arriving overhead of what he thought was a sod-covered field, the pilot used an externally mounted searchlight to aid in seeing the ground and obstructions during the landing approach. As the helicopter approached the open field and transitioned from forward flight to a hover, the pilot encountered blowing, dry sand and dust created by the helicopter's main rotor downwash, which reduced his visibility. He stated he lost all visual reference with the surface of the field, and while attempting to regain a visual reference, the helicopter's main rotor struck a large tree, and the fuselage began to rotate. The helicopter's tail boom assembly subsequently struck the tree, and the helicopter impacted terrain. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the main rotor drive system, tail boom assembly, and fuselage. A postaccident inspection of the landing site disclosed that the sod had recently been removed from the field, leaving a dry, sand-covered field. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the helicopter.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from objects while hovering in ground effect, which resulted in an in-flight collision with a tree. Factors associated with the accident were loose, sand-covered terrain, and the operator's failure to ensure that the pilot was provided with current, off-airport landing site condition information.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC06LA073
- Event ID
- 20060629X00850
- Case number
- ANC06LA073
- 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: dd3c391f4da3e0ec673c2c4d191ac56dacd039981167c5ed5f861d94c0bd11db; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:44:44.512Z.