CEN16WA044 · Bell 206 L4
Bell 206 L4 · Accident
From San Carlos to Managua
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's fatalities. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN16WA044
- 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
- 3 · all aircraft and ground Possible conflict
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- 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
- Not recorded
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
- YN-ISA
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San CarlosTo Managua
- 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., Non-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
- Unknown
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On November 17, 2015, about 1140 coordinated universal time, a Bell 206L4 helicopter, Nicaraguan registered YN-ISA, impacted the San Juan River near San Carlos, Rio San Juan, Nicaragua. The pilot and three passengers were fatally injured and the helicopter was destroyed. The flight was originating at the time of the accident. Witnesses reported dense fog in the area.
The accident investigation is under the jurisdiction and control of the Nicaraguan government. This report is for informational purposes only and contains only information released by or obtained from the Nicaraguan Civil Aeronautics Institute (INAC). Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
Nicaraguan Civil Aeronautics Institute (INAC)
Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission
Tel: +505-233-2907 / 276-8580 ext. 1090
Fax: +505-2276-8588
seguridad@inac.gob.ni
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN16WA044
- Event ID
- 20151118X20221
- Case number
- CEN16WA044
- 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: 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: 50398061d845b5639127a55ede1ea2a8b16084fef6eed88502c2fb6f2c4d0004; retrieved 2026-09-14T21:34:26.027Z.