WPR12CA183 · Bell 206B
San Joaquin Helicopters Bell 206B · Accident: loss of visual reference while maneuvering
From Creekside Airport (5CL8) to Arvin, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR12CA183
- 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
- N969W
- Operator
- San Joaquin Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Creekside Airport (5CL8), Arvin, CATo Arvin, CA
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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 · low-altitude flying
- 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 visual reference
- 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
- Wire
- 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
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Prior to performing the aerial application flight, the pilot surveyed the field and observed a set of power lines along the eastern border. While completing the final pass toward the east, the helicopter struck the power lines. The pilot reported that he did not see the lines silhouetted against the grey sky until just before the collision and that he performed an evasive maneuver in an attempt to descend below the lines. The helicopter struck the ground after the collision, nosed over, and rolled onto its right side, sustaining substantial damage to the fuselage and main rotor system. This was the pilot's second revenue flight, having recently been hired as an apprentice. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot did not maintain clearance from power lines during low altitude maneuvering.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR12CA183
- Event ID
- 20120425X03742
- Case number
- WPR12CA183
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2012-04-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: afa08ce071e89f6f32ad703787e20758ec0473ad104f9ce30b4b0b8a7b451aba; retrieved 2026-09-15T17:52:54.162Z.