CEN14CA525 · Bell 206B
Chem Air Bell 206B · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Nashoba, OK to Nashoba, OK
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14CA525
- 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
- N152CA
- Operator
- Chem Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nashoba, OKTo Nashoba, OK
- Aircraft age
- About 36 years (built 1978)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After being refueled, the helicopter departed for an aerial application flight. As the helicopter lifted off, the pilot lost directional control of the helicopter and the nose of the helicopter turned right. The pilot confirmed that the throttle was open and after the helicopter turned 180 degrees, he reduced the engine's power to idle, maintained a level attitude, and touched down hard on uneven terrain. The tail rotor contacted a pile of debris resulting in substantial damage to the tail rotor. There were no reported malfunctions or failures which contributed to the accident. The helicopter was estimated to be about 66 pounds over the helicopter's maximum gross weight. In addition, the accident occurred in rugged terrain which likely resulted in an unexpected wind shift during the takeoff. The circumstances of the accident are consistent with the helicopter's loss of tail rotor effectiveness and directional control.
Probable cause
The pilot's loss of directional control due a loss of tail rotor effectiveness.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14CA525
- Event ID
- 20140929X52153
- Case number
- CEN14CA525
- 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: 6677d495c43e3abeab2cb03c17c03150d8873ae294fcf13aacfa2c102b5c2cb3; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:48:51.062Z.