ERA23LA307 · Bell 206 B
Maine Helicopters Bell 206 B · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Morgantown Municipal Airport Walter L. (Bill) Hart Field (MGW) to Elkins-Randolph County Regional Airport (EKN)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA23LA307
- 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
- N9913K
- Operator
- Maine Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Morgantown Municipal Airport Walter L. (Bill) Hart Field (MGW), Morgantown, WVTo Elkins-Randolph County Regional Airport (EKN), Elkins, WV
- Aircraft age
- About 47 years (built 1976)
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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 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 pilot was operating the helicopter near maximum gross weight about 400 ft above ground level, following the terrain for an aerial observation flight. About 10 seconds into a descent, over a hilltop toward the next power transmission line, the helicopter encountered a strong tailwind. Noting a loss of airspeed, the pilot lowered the collective to gain airspeed; however, the helicopter continued to slow and descend. The pilot further lowered the collective and pushed the cyclic forward, but this was ineffective in increasing the helicopter’s airspeed. Given the low operating profile in the confined surveying location between power transmission lines and trees, the pilot did not have adequate space to compensate for the tailwind condition or turn the helicopter into the wind. Consequently, the helicopter continued to descend until it impacted the ground. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation and stated (and a review of meteorological data confirmed) that the stronger than anticipated tailwinds arrived before the forecasted time.
Probable cause
The pilot’s inability to maneuver the helicopter for recovery after experiencing a strong, unanticipated tailwind in a confined operating area, which resulted in a descent and subsequent impact with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA23LA307
- Event ID
- 20230724192695
- Case number
- ERA23LA307
- 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, 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: 11a394eb7a81cbafb8519ae00fb2a3aec860414c3d080fe0f721931e9a985665; retrieved 2026-09-16T17:53:50.371Z.