FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

LAX08WA305 · Bell 206 L3

25 Sept 2008 · Douglas Camp, Papua New Guinea Possible conflict

Bell 206 L3 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering

From Douglas Camp to Douglas Camp

Report a problem

Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.

Event

NTSB case
LAX08WA305
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
Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
API-reported fatalities
1 · 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 206 L3

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
P2-HBC
Operator
Heli Niugini
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Douglas CampTo Douglas Camp
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
Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
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
Defining eventThe 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

No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

On September 25, 2008, at 1012 local time, a Bell 206L3, Papua New Guinea (PNG) registry P2-HBC, crashed in a remote area near Douglas Camp (PNG) under unknown circumstances while reportedly performing long line operations. The helicopter was operated by Heli Niugini under the pertinent provisions of the PNG civil aviation regulations. The helicopter sustained substantial damage and the pilot, the sole occupant, was killed.

The accident is under the jurisdiction of, and is being investigated by, the Papua New Guinea aircraft accident investigation authority. Further information can be obtained from:

Director of Air Safety Investigation Department of Civil Aviation P.O. Box 684 Boroko, NCD Papua New Guinea

Tel.: (675) 271764 Fax: (675) 272201 AFTN: AYPYYAYX Telex: 22203 NE

Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX08WA305
Event ID
20090710X20155
Case number
LAX08WA305
Dataset
full-current
Source SHA-256
5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 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: 18ea84b816f8de9876fbb9bd09f970f921d7475a0bdffc5ef802198f8e13f771; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:21:26.509Z.