ANC20CA070 · Bell 206L-1
Egli Air Haul Bell 206L-1 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) while maneuvering
From Augustine Islan, AK to Homer, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC20CA070
- 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 206L-1
- 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
- N1432D
- Operator
- Egli Air Haul
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Augustine Islan, AKTo Homer, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 38 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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 · hover
- 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)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tower/antenna (incl guy wires)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during maneuvering for external load operations to a boat, the helicopter suddenly began to shake violently. He immediately realized the helicopter had struck the boat with the main rotor blades; he jettisoned the 50 ft longline, the skid-based emergency flotation system was activated, and the helicopter landed on the water without further incident.
A post-accident examination revealed that the helicopter had struck the boat's mast and sustained substantial damage to the two main rotor blades.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot further added, he should have measured the boat mast height prior to operation instead of visually estimating the height and instead used a 100 ft long-line.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to see and avoid the boat's mast, which resulted in a main rotor blade strike. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's inadequate preflight planning by not having the boat's mast measured.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC20CA070
- Event ID
- 20200716X10253
- Case number
- ANC20CA070
- 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: 47dd6852f8e5023704a3ca7b2df59776733b83cb47238fe382dc83a93278b38b; retrieved 2026-09-16T12:09:44.208Z.