Air Logistics Bell Helicopter Textron 206L-1 incident
Bell Helicopter Textron 206L-1 · Incident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From Galveston, TX to HI-138, GM
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location and departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW08IA002
- 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
- Incident
- 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 Helicopter Textron 206L-1
- 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
- N3899C
- Operator
- Air Logistics
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Galveston, TXTo HI-138, GM
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Rotor system, tail rotor blade › Foreign object damage
- Rotor system, tail rotor blade › Fractured
- Tail rotor/anti-torque control › Not possible
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that as the helicopter was accelerating through 40 to 50 knots in a slight climb, while still only about 200 feet away from the departed offshore platform, he felt and heard a "loud bang" as the tail of the helicopter yawed to the right. He added that the helicopter started to descend and he made a mayday call as he prepared for the water landing. The helicopter touched down in a nose high attitude, and the tail rotor system was reported to have contacted the water. The emergency flotation system deployed successfully and the helicopter and the passengers reported that the helicopter made a smooth water landing. A detailed follow-up engine examination was conducted at the operator's maintenance facilities. The investigation concluded that there was no evidence of distress or failure observed on any of the components of the compressor, engine gearbox, or turbine assemblies that might have accounted for the loud bang reported by the pilot and the passengers during the accident sequence. Additionally, no unresolved engine-related discrepancies were found in the examined aircraft or engine records. The operator reported that a section of a tail rotor blade was found on a beach miles from the site. The blade was verified to be from the accident helicopter. The portion of the tail rotor blade was forwarded to a lab, where further examination revealed marks on the leading edge of the blade. The marks extended approximately thirteen inches from the tip of the blade and appeared to be evenly spaced. The fracture appeared to be the result of overload. The transferred material was confirmed not to be from any part of the helicopter. The analysis of the material revealed that it was possibly the metal bindings of a notebook. The suspected 3-ring binder was not located and none of the 3 occupants of the helicopter reported losing a 3-ring binder. The manager of the offshore helideck reported that there were no lose objects of any type at the helideck and FOD sweeps are made on a routine basis. The source of the missing binder could not be established.
Probable cause
The loss of tail rotor control during initial takeoff climb due to the fracture of a tail rotor blade as result of impact with a foreign object.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW08IA002
- Event ID
- 20071017X01599
- Case number
- DFW08IA002
- 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. 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: ca468cafd0df05d8b2ae20ac9d05b601df96f26d03e2dcf24ee1a5c358699224; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:41:25.362Z.