GAA18CA512 · Bell 206 B
El Aero Services Bell 206 B · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Battle Mountain Airport (BAM) to Battle Mountain Airport (BAM)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA512
- 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
- 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
- N8052G
- Operator
- El Aero Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Battle Mountain Airport (BAM), Battle Mountain, NVTo Battle Mountain Airport (BAM), Battle Mountain, NV
- Aircraft age
- About 29 years (built 1989)
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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 control in flight
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter pilot reported that, while climbing out of a canyon at 30 knots indicated airspeed, about 50 ft above ground level, he felt a "hard vibration" in the cyclic and collective controls. He then saw that the airspeed gauge was reading 0 knots and felt the helicopter being pushed down. The torque indicator rose to 120% without any cyclic or collective control input. He applied right cyclic, lowered the collective, applied right pedal to counter the torque, and turned the helicopter downslope into the wind. He applied forward cyclic to better match the downslope of the terrain and raised the collective, but the skids impacted the ground, followed by the main rotor blades. The helicopter rotated 180º to the right before coming to rest downhill on its right side. Shortly after, a postimpact fire ensued, which destroyed the helicopter.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot reported that the winds were gusting to 30 knots in the canyon and "changing direction every minute or so."
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain the proper altitude and airspeed while flying in a canyon in gusting wind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA512
- Event ID
- 20180820X64849
- Case number
- GAA18CA512
- 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: 82df2b34ed8ce39070121c9f345bd245785ad6dbc38db7b3196ef9b34e722af5; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:07:39.851Z.