Bell 47G-3B-1 accident near Fillmore, UT
On October 29, 1996, a Bell 47G-3B-1 (helicopter) was involved in an accident near Fillmore, UT. 1 person died. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.
- Date
- October 29, 1996
- Place
- Fillmore, UT
- Aircraft
- Bell 47G-3B-1 · Helicopter
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Substantial
- Position
- 38.959°N, 112.389°W
- NTSB ID
- 20001208X06988
NTSB summary
On October 29, 1996, at 1547 mountain standard time, a Bell 47G-3B-1, N3098G, registered to Versatile Helicopter, operated by the United States Forest Service as a public use flight, collided with mountainous terrain located 12 miles south of Fillmore, Utah. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and no flight plan was filed for the local flight. The helicopter was substantially damaged and the commercial pilot, the sole occupant, was fatally injured. The helicopter had been seeding a previously burned area since early morning and had been taking off and landing at a landing zone near the accident site. United States Forest Service personnel reported that on the day of the accident, seeding operations began at 0820. The seed bucket had three 40-foot long cables attached to it that came together at a sway bar. The sway bar then connected to a hook under the belly of the helicopter. The helicopter had successfully completed 20 seeding runs and had landed at the same landing zone for the next load of seed. The landing was described as the same as the previous, in that the bucket would touch down on the ground and then the pilot would maneuver the helicopter backwards and touch down with the bucket in front of him. The two ground crew then loaded the seed in the bucket without doing anything to the three lines that were attached to the bucket. After the loading was complete, one of the ground crew members moved to the front of the helicopter and behind a large rock, while the other ground crew member moved to the right of the helicopter, near the stack of seed b
Probable cause
inadequate procedure and inadequate monitoring by the pilot, the operator, and/or other personnel, which allowed one of three external cables to the seed bucket to become entangled with the right skid of the helicopter, resulting in an imbalance and loss of aircraft control as weight on the cable became effective. Lack of air/ground communication between the pilot and ground crew personnel was a r
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Browse: Utah · Bell aircraft
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
