Aereo Services Bell 206 - L1 accident
Bell 206 - L1 · Accident: loss of lift during initial climb
From Lake Peten Izta to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN15WA363
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- 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
- 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 - L1
- 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
- TG-MIX
- Operator
- Aereo Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Peten IztaTo not recorded
- 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
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 lift
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
On August 7, 2015, about 1128 Universal Coordinated Time, a Bell 206-L1, Guatemalan-registered TG-MIX, operated by Aereo Services, was substantially damaged when it impacted Lake Peten Itza, Guatemala. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The pilot and one passenger received minor injuries. The flight was originating at the time of the accident and was transporting cargo and personnel to an archeological site.
The Guatemalan investigators received reports that the helicopter was climbing and was between 100 and 200 feet above the ground when it started to descend. The pilot attempted to return to the shoreline. The helicopter struck the water, inverted, and sank.
The accident investigation is under the jurisdiction and control of the Guatemalan government. This report is for information purposes only and contains only information released by or obtained from the Guatemalan government or Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil (DGAC). Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
Gobierno De Guatemala Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil (DGAC) Aeropuerto International La Aurora Zona 13, Guatemala, C.A. 01013
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN15WA363
- Event ID
- 20150818X32201
- Case number
- CEN15WA363
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (5)
- 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.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b077251a2e2c5e7b85bcb13e4291fb3418b31c8415e9801854bd810ac08ce5cd; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:41:18.983Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operator. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "a Bell 206-L1, Guatemalan-registered TG-MIX, operated by Aereo Services, was substantially damaged"