AeroWest Management Services Bell 206L-3 accident
Bell 206L-3 · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Taos Regional Airport (SKX) to Taos, NM
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN06LA096
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 206L-3
- 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
- N44NM
- Operator
- Aerowest Management Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Taos Regional Airport (SKX), Taos, NMTo Taos, NM
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Pilot in command › Loss of tail rotor effectiveness, encountered
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The purpose of the flight was to assist in an air search for a missing individual and provide aerial photo footage. While maneuvering at an altitude of approximately 12,500 feet mean sea level (msl), the pilot noticed a group of individuals exited a portion of the tree-covered area, and a National Guard UH-60 helicopter was staged on the ground in an open area. After a radio conversation with the National Guard pilot, the news helicopter pilot attempted to land in the open area, in order to obtain video footage of the rescue. After circling the open area 3 times at an airspeed of 40 to 50 knots, the pilot attempted to land approximately 300 feet from the National Guard helicopter. Approximately 30 feet above ground level (agl), the pilot applied forward cyclic to increase airspeed for a run-on landing. Shortly thereafter, the helicopter began a yaw to the right. The pilot then applied full left anti-torque pedal input; however, the yaw to the right continued. Approximately 10 feet agl, the pilot reduced throttle and applied forward cyclic. Subsequently, the helicopter impacted terrain nose first, rolled to the left and came to rest on its left side. The accident site was located in mountainous open terrain at an elevation of approximately 12,400 msl. The pilot reported the wind was calm and the temperature was approximately 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The pilot stated he did not complete any performance calculations prior to the flight. No preaccident anomalies were noted with the helicopter. The FAA have published information about the loss of tail rotor effectiveness (LTE). At higher altitudes, where the air is thinner, tail rotor thrust and efficiency is reduced. When operating at high altitudes and high gross weight, especially while hovering, the tail rotor thrust may not be sufficient to maintain directional control and LTE can occur. In this case, the hovering ceiling is limited by tail rotor thrust and not necessarily power available. In these conditions gross weights need to be reduced and/or operations need to be limited to lower density altitudes.
Probable cause
the loss of tail rotor effectiveness during landing, and the pilot's delayed remedial action to counteract a right yaw, which resulted in a loss of directional control and collision with terrain. A contributing factor was the pilot's failure to perform preflight performance calculations.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN06LA096
- Event ID
- 20060714X00941
- Case number
- DEN06LA096
- 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: 27d6e48033450c871efa7ca02f444aa690a01c15446ab82271346caa441d319c; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:51:53.695Z.