ERA18LA183 · Bell 206 B
Bell 206 B · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (TJIG) to Villa Marina Heliport (PR26)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA18LA183
- 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 206 B
- 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
- N10CV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (TJIG), San Juan, PRTo Villa Marina Heliport (PR26), Fajardo, PR
- Aircraft age
- About 39 years (built 1979)
- 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
- Loss of engine power (total)
- 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 › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot and three passengers were on a personal local flight. A passenger stated that the first few minutes of the flight were normal, but he then felt what he described as "a pull from the ground," and the helicopter started to descend. He reported hearing a "beep beep" sound, which is consistent with an engine out warning. The passenger reported that the pilot subsequently attempted to land on a road, but the passenger felt the helicopter "just fall down and crash."
During the postaccident examination of the helicopter, 9.5 ounces of engine oil were drained from the oil supply tank, and 6 ounces of engine oil, which contained some metallic debris were drained from the accessory gearbox; however, no significant anomalies were noted following testing of the drained oil.
Engine bearings Nos. 2.5, 6, and 8 did not contain any oil. Noted damage to all of the main bearings was consistent with thermal distress. Slight oil streaking was noted on both sides of the aft fuselage; the source of the oil could not be determined and most likely occurred postaccident.
Material loss of the No. 2 bearing due to a loss of oil resulted in a loss of axial support of the compressor impeller by the No. 2 bearing, allowing forward axial movement of the compressor impeller from its normal position. The compressor impeller eventually contacted the compressor shroud, resulting in a sudden decrease in N1 rpm and a loss of engine power.
The passengers account of the pilot's behavior did not suggest that the pilot was confused or had difficulty in responding to the inflight emergency; therefore, it is unlikely that any of the pilot's known medical conditions or use of medications contributed to the accident.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to oil exhaustion, which resulted in an uncontrolled descent and hard landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA18LA183
- Event ID
- 20180630X45646
- Case number
- ERA18LA183
- 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: 5769c7c794d60e33a64ac294b1eea711321679fe93ca656ad54e6209eade4622; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:43:31.072Z.