WPR26LA207 · Bell 47G-2
Bell 47G-2 · Accident during takeoff
From Mettler, CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR26LA207
- 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 47G-2
- Aircraft type
- Bell 47
- 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
- N88755
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mettler, CATo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 67 years (built 1959)
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot landed the helicopter on an agricultural loading platform mounted on top a support truck to load spray material. After the loading operation was complete, the pilot signaled the ground crew member to stop pumping the spray material. The ground crewmember then approached the helicopter to speak with the pilot. After their brief conversation, the pilot initiated takeoff without verifying the loading hose had been disconnected from the helicopter's spray system. Upon realizing the hose remained attached, the pilot attempted to maintain a hover above the truck while the ground crewmember disconnected the hose. The ground crewmember was able to disconnect the hose; however, the pilot lost control of the helicopter, and it impacted terrain adjacent to the loading truck. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, cabin, main rotor system, and tail rotor system. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to ensure the loading hose had been disconnected before takeoff, which resulted in an interrupted takeoff and subsequent loss of control. Contributing to the accident was the ground loader's failure to disconnect the hose before communicating with the pilot.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR26LA207
- Event ID
- 20260602203108
- Case number
- WPR26LA207
- 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: 0ad08d5a7f36aa11023b7fce87326b98c227c753caaf2f8590edf1a603752325; retrieved 2026-09-16T21:38:11.328Z.