CEN17FA112 · Bell 407
Westwind Helicopters Bell 407 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) en route
From ST37 · GOM ST37, GM to Houma Terrebonne Airport (HUM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17FA112
- 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
- 1 · 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 407
- Aircraft type
- Bell 407
- 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
- N1371
- Operator
- Westwind Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ST37 · GOM ST37, GMTo Houma Terrebonne Airport (HUM), Houma, LA
- Aircraft age
- About 20 years (built 1997)
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Not determined › Not determined
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot was repositioning the helicopter from an offshore oil platform to the operator's home base in visual meteorological conditions. When the helicopter did not return as expected, the operator initiated a search; the helicopter wreckage was found in a shallow marsh area just off shore. No radio distress calls were received from the pilot, and the skid-mounted emergency float system was not deployed. Onboard flight-following equipment recorded a straight flight path tracking directly to the intended destination with a gradual descent just prior to impact.
Accident flight data extracted from the helicopter's engine control unit did not show any faults with the engine. Detailed examinations of the helicopter's airframe, drive system, and flight controls did not reveal any preimpact anomalies. Examination and full teardown of the engine did not reveal any anomalies and indicated that the engine was operating at the time of impact.
Airframe deformations were consistent with a slightly nose-low and left-skid-down attitude at the time of impact; therefore, it is unlikely that the pilot experienced a loss of control. Given the absence of mechanical anomalies, the fact that the pilot did not make a distress call or activate the emergency float system, and the helicopter's relatively straight recorded flight path, it is likely that the helicopter was operating normally at the time of impact. Further, toxicology testing and autopsy findings did not indicate any evidence of pilot impairment. It could not be determined why the pilot failed to recognize the helicopter's descent and maintain a proper altitude above the water.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain proper altitude resulting in a collision with water for reasons that could not be determined based on the available information.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17FA112
- Event ID
- 20170228X30735
- Case number
- CEN17FA112
- 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: 00aa170b496a2cb025f281212a96dfa4b520543f2648321cbb8fe5d5372cb8ea; retrieved 2026-09-15T05:59:15.228Z.