CEN12FA321 · Bell 206-L4
Bell 206-L4 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From GM to Gulf of Mexico
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12FA321
- 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
- 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
- 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 206-L4
- 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
- N7077F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From GMTo Gulf of Mexico
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot was attempting to land his single-engine helicopter on a fixed production platform helipad when the main rotor blades struck the corner of an oil derrick that was partially positioned over the helipad. The pilot lost control and descended inverted into the ocean. The emergency external floats were not inflated, and the helicopter sank. At the time of the accident, a mobile jack-up rig was mated with the fixed production platform. According to the company that owned the production platform, the helipad was closed and all flight operations were being conducted from the jack-up rig’s helipad, which was larger and unobstructed. However, at the time of the accident, the production platform’s helipad was not marked closed and no notice to airman (NOTAM) had been issued to notify pilots that the helipad was closed.
There was also nothing in the operator’s flight operations manual that would have restricted the pilot from landing under an obstruction. Other company pilots were aware that this helipad was a flight hazard due to the encroachment of the oil derrick, but it was never reported to management or via the company’s internal safety notification system. A review of company flight manifest records revealed that the pilot had flown to this platform on several occasions, including 2 days before the accident, and landed on the jack-up rig’s helipad. It could not be determined why the pilot decided to land on the smaller and obstructed helipad rather than the jack up rig’s larger helipad just 2 days later. Examination of the helicopter and engine revealed no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from an obstacle while landing on an obstructed helipad, which resulted in a collision and loss of control. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the helipad owner to mark the helipad closed and the failure of the flight operator to report the known hazard and issue a notice to airman.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12FA321
- Event ID
- 20120529X90616
- Case number
- CEN12FA321
- 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: 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: 664f87feb7e580c26cefadff5f5ff81a469b29477719e7f5396b06c282c4cf11; retrieved 2026-09-13T22:24:22.612Z.