MIA06LA123 · Bell 206B
Bell 206B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Pompano Beach Airpark (KPMP) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA06LA123
- 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
- N515AA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pompano Beach Airpark (KPMP), Pompano Beach, FLTo 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
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Flare, improper
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 was conducting a post annual inspection and maintenance test flight. The pilot stated that he just completed a steep approach and elected to conduct another one. During the second approach, at about 400 feet above the ground, the helicopter seemed to mush and feel sluggish to him. Recalling during the preflight inspection, he noted minor issues during the hydraulic checks. He decided to discontinue the steep approach and fly to the landing spot on a taxiway. He wanted to increase the helicopter's airspeed to get "the aircraft on the ground ASAP." There were no visual or auditoria warning indications from the helicopter instruments of a problem; however an unusual noise would not subside behind him. He elected to perform a run-on landing in the place of a flare to a quick stop arrival. Witnesses stated that the helicopter porpoised, hitting the ground nose first then the tail rotor, followed by the helicopter sliding on its side before stopping in the grassy area of the infield. Examination of the helicopter wreckage was conducted. No abnormalities were noted with the engine, airframe, and its systems, except for the air conditioner compressor. The air conditioner compressor, located in the aft lower portion of the engine compartment, was observed with the belt off its pulley. Damages to the belt were consistent with it chafing against the nuts on the driveshaft Thomas coupling. The pulleys were misaligned; the support bracket for the compressor was loose and had missing rivets. The helicopter's maintenance records showed that the air conditioner compressor had a belt change and the base plate was re-shimmed to realign the driveshaft and the compressor during the annual inspection.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper landing flare during a precautionary landing. A factor in the accident was the unusual noise as a result of an improper repaired air conditioner compressor system.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA06LA123
- Event ID
- 20060724X00997
- Case number
- MIA06LA123
- 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: 28b50ee8f06f89bf58d0ca78bc68eadfd464ee114c33b5263dc6026a8adb602f; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:43:23.197Z.