ERA22LA347 · Bell 206L-3
D H Helicopter Bell 206L-3 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) en route
From Venango Regional Airport (FKL) to Indiana County–Jimmy Stewart Airport (IDI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA22LA347
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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-3
- 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
- N203PA
- Operator
- D H Helicopter Inc Dba
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Venango Regional Airport (FKL), Franklin, PATo Indiana County–Jimmy Stewart Airport (IDI), Indiana, PA
- Aircraft age
- About 31 years (built 1991)
- 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
- 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
- Wire
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was flying the helicopter following a river shoreline about 400 ft above ground level. He was scanning the horizon when he saw a “flash” and felt the helicopter shudder. He assessed the controllability of the helicopter and noted no anomalies, therefore, he continued the flight to a nearby airport. After landing, during the post flight examination of the helicopter, he found substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer of the helicopter. Furthermore, there were wire strike marks on the main rotor blade consistent with a wire strike. The operator reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s inadequate visual lookout while flying at a low level over a river, which resulted in a wire strike.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA22LA347
- Event ID
- 20220801105635
- Case number
- ERA22LA347
- 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: 232b25a1dabdba6b0e2633b32045341e0d01eb3884dc7d3735d5ed6fb6d7819f; retrieved 2026-09-16T15:32:22.048Z.