CEN13LA447 · Bell 206B
Kash Helicopter Services Bell 206B · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) while maneuvering
From Tamaroa, IL (private airstrip) to Tamaroa, IL (private airstrip)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN13LA447
- 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
- N23L
- Operator
- Kash Helicopter Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tamaroa, IL (private airstrip)To Tamaroa, IL (private airstrip)
- 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
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot took off on the aerial application flight, flew the helicopter about 1/4 mile to the assigned field, and completed an initial application pass. The pilot recalled that the helicopter was approaching the point at which he intended to reverse course for the next spray run; however, he did not recall the accident sequence. The accident site was located about 1/4 mile south of his planned turning point in an adjacent farm field. The pilot commented that the terrain was "flat" with corn about 8 feet tall. He also noted that the helicopter was "performing great" with no known problems before the accident. A postaccident examination did not reveal any anomalies consistent with a preimpact malfunction or failure.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from terrain during an agricultural application maneuver.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN13LA447
- Event ID
- 20130730X55435
- Case number
- CEN13LA447
- 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. 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: 09c96ffe8bd91ec48f5c5b2d6ab64008bbcce82dbf16b2a0d5aee0d5b0773214; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:22:48.081Z.