GAA16CA408 · Bell Helicopter Textron 206 L1
Bell Helicopter Textron 206 L1 · Accident during autorotation
From Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD) to Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA408
- 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
- Government
- 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 Helicopter Textron 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
- N206LW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD), Modesto, CATo Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD), Modesto, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 38 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- Autorotation
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter pilot reported that after a lengthy search and rescue mission he was headed back to the airport when the low fuel light illuminated, which meant there was about 10 minutes of fuel remaining. The pilot further reported that during the approach to land he made a right turn to final and the engine "flamed out". Subsequently, the pilot performed an emergency autorotation which resulted in abnormal ground contact and main rotor contact with the tail boom.
After the landing, the passenger examined the helicopter and revealed that the tail boom sustained substantial damage.
The pilot reported that prior to the loss of engine power, there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
The loss of engine power reported by the pilot was likely the result of fuel starvation during the right turn to final. The pilot reported that the fuel level was not checked after the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain pitch control during an autorotation, which resulted in abnormal ground contact and main rotor contact with the tail boom. Contributing to the accident was the low fuel level which resulted in fuel starvation and a loss of engine power during the right turn to final.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA408
- Event ID
- 20160802X53901
- Case number
- GAA16CA408
- 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. 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: 91c859bc803a0e49ac9cd090d9f522748010763a6848e7c8a4ef5935adc6628a; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:44:48.704Z.