ERA16WA081 · Bell 429
Flash Energy Bell 429 · Accident: VFR encounter with IMC en route
From Rostov-na-Donu to Rostov-na-Dony
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA16WA081
- 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
- 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 429
- Aircraft type
- Bell 429
- 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
- RA-01617
- Operator
- Flash Energy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rostov-na-DonuTo Rostov-na-Dony
- 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
- En route
- 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
- VFR encounter with IMC
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed Possible conflict
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
Subject: ERA16WA081 Bell 429, RA-01617, Rostov-na-Dony, Russia
On January 1, 2016, about 0621 universal coordinated time, a Bell 429, Russian registration RA-01617, was substantially damaged by collision with terrain during an uncontrolled descent following a loss of aircraft control while on approach to land. The Russian certificated pilots were seriously injured. The flight was destined for Rostov-na-Dony, Russia.
According to investigators, the helicopter had descended to approximately 90 feet altitude while on approach to land, when the helicopter began to rotate to the right and climb to an altitude of about 200 feet, before it descended uncontrolled to ground contact.
The helicopter was operating in a river valley, and weather observations around the time of the accident included conditions conducive to restrictions to visibility due to freezing mist or fog.
This accident investigation is under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Aviation Committee of Russia. Any further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
The Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) Fax: +7(495) 953-57-42 Office phone: +7(495) 953-96-59
This report is for informational purposes only, and contains only information released by or obtained from the Government of Russia.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA16WA081
- Event ID
- 20160106X93154
- Case number
- ERA16WA081
- 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: d83871f96ce89f51866d8b34bcf9f7ec58228fed474e024a35c4adf317b87f51; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:04:40.683Z.