ERA19LA145 · Bell 222 A
Bell 222 A · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Montgomery, NY to Kobelt Airport (N45)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA19LA145
- 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 222 A
- Aircraft type
- Bell 222
- 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
- N222ML
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery, NYTo Kobelt Airport (N45), Wallkill, NY
- Aircraft age
- About 37 years (built 1982)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 (partial)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The twin-engine helicopter was about 500 ft into the initial climb after takeoff from the pilot’s private property when he noticed a “split” in the #1 and #2 engine rpm needles, with the #1 engine rpm indicating below normal operating rpm, and the #2 engine rpm indicating above normal operating rpm. The pilot believed that this was believed that this was indicative of a loss of power on the #1 engine and returned to the property for a run-on landing. The helicopter touched down, encountered uneven ground, and rolled onto its left side, which resulted in substantial damage to the airframe.
Postaccident examination of the airframe found both of the throttles near the idle position, and no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of any airframe components. Both engines and their respective power turbine governors were examined and successfully test run after the accident. During the examinations, the #2 engine’s P3 Ng speed sensor connector was found disconnected. According to the engine manufacturer, if the disconnection had occurred inflight, the cockpit indication of the engine speed for the #2 engine would have been zero. Given this information, and the pilot’s description that the #2 engine rpm was abnormally high, it is likely that the disconnection of the connector occurred as a result of the accident sequence and not during the flight. Based on these findings, the reason for the difference between the indications of the two engines that the pilot observed during the takeoff could not be determined.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power, as reported by the pilot, during takeoff for reasons that could not be determined based on available information.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA19LA145
- Event ID
- 20190330X70118
- Case number
- ERA19LA145
- 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, coordinates, cause areas. 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: cdae6bf6872f7daa1bfeacd9cf08a22f862b985123db06ffdb187a05fb3b2b9d; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:42:02.204Z.