Bell 206 N165BH

Summary

On 20 September 2015 at about 23:00 local time, a Bell 206 registered N165BH was involved in an accident near Thomaston, Georgia, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

20 September 2015 at 23:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Thomaston, Georgia, United States

Coordinates

32.7919, -84.2397

Aircraft

Bell 206

Registration

N165BH

Category

Helicopter

Year built

1979

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 137: Agricultural

Purpose of flight

Aerial Application

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Thomaston → Thomaston

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA15LA374

Nobody was injured.

The loss of tail rotor control due to a fractured pin in the tail rotor control system; the reason the pin fractured could not be determined as the fractured pin was lost in shipping.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The commercial pilot performed a right pedal turn to land the helicopter on a truck-mounted platform, and, just before touchdown, a pin that connected a push-pull tube to the left anti-torque pedal broke resulting in a loss of directional control. The pilot maneuvered the helicopter away from the truck to avoid striking his employees and tried unsuccessfully to land back on the truck's platform. He then repositioned away from the truck, closed the throttle, and lowered the collective to land, and the main rotor blades struck the side of the truck. Although this make and model of helicopter is typically flown from the right seat, the accident helicopter was equipped with a left-hand "command" kit, and the pilot was flying it from the left seat. In addition, the helicopter was equipped with a tail rotor pedal lockout kit, which was designed to disconnect and lockout the tail rotor pedals to prevent interference by a passenger seated in the copilot's seat, which was, in this helicopter, the right seat. Photographs of the tail rotor pedal assembly revealed that the left expandable pin, which was a part of the tail rotor pedal lockout kit, had fractured, which disconnected the left anti-torque pedal from the tail rotor control system. Fracture analysis could not be performed on the broken pin because the pin was lost in shipping. Therefore, the failure mode for the pin could not be determined; however, it is built to the same strength as the bolts that it is intended to replace.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.