ERA21LA023 · Bell 206 B
Bell 206 B · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Plant City, FL to Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport (KCRG)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA21LA023
- 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
- 0
- 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
- N777CP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Plant City, FLTo Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport (KCRG), Jacksonville, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 39 years (built 1981)
- 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 · cruise
- 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 › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While in cruise flight, the pilot heard a binding sound and felt a reduction in engine power. The low rotor rpm aural alarm then sounded, and he initiated an autorotation to swampy terrain. The helicopter came to rest amongst pine trees and undergrowth. The tailboom was impact separated and the main rotors were fractured about midspan.
During a detailed examination of the helicopter, the “B” nut at the engine fuel control unit was found loose with no thread engagement. During a test run of the engine, the “B” nut was tightened and torqued to proper specification. The engine ran smoothly and continuously at all power settings.
A review of the helicopter’s maintenance records revealed the last annual inspection was completed about 75 hours prior to the accident. The pilot, who also holds an airframe and powerplant certificate, was the last person to perform maintenance on the engine.
According to the Rolls-Royce maintenance manual, torque paint must be applied to all the rigid tube “B” nuts to ensure proper tightening. According to the maintenance manual, “failure to properly install, align, and tighten fuel, oil, and air fittings could result in an engine failure.”
Probable cause
Improper torquing of the “B” nut at the fuel control unit, which led to a total loss of engine power and subsequent autorotation that resulted in substantial damage.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA21LA023
- Event ID
- 20201019102161
- Case number
- ERA21LA023
- 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: 7eb8bf02397333f0aa398cb82237ae025a0daaf44854eb88ce15efdd6675608b; retrieved 2026-09-16T13:15:09.754Z.