WPR14LA180 · Bell 47G UNDESIGNAT
Bell 47G UNDESIGNAT · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) en route
From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT) to Compton Woodley Airport (CPM)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14LA180
- 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 47G UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Bell 47
- 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
- N7895B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT), El Monte, CATo Compton Woodley Airport (CPM), Compton, CA, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 56 years (built 1958)
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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 engine power (partial)
- 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 power plant
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during climbout, the engine experienced a partial loss of power, the helicopter shook violently, and the engine then made a couple of "popping" sounds. He immediately initiated a precautionary landing to an open field. During the landing, the right skid caught on the ground, and the helicopter then rolled onto its right side.
During postaccident functional tests, the left magneto and the No. 5 cylinder's spark plugs did not function properly. No further evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation were observed. Therefore, it is likely that the malfunctioning left magneto and spark plugs caused the partial loss of engine power.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power during climbout due to a malfunctioning magneto and spark plugs.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14LA180
- Event ID
- 20140504X23000
- Case number
- WPR14LA180
- 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: d7e70ed592d7a55fe407cea5d67eefc6d2bccf87f423e8554704d44b2ce6d3c6; retrieved 2026-09-15T23:34:26.941Z.