Bell 206B accident near Centreville, AL
On October 5, 1999, a Bell 206B (helicopter) was involved in an accident near Centreville, AL. 2 people died. Damage to the aircraft: destroyed.
- Date
- October 5, 1999
- Place
- Centreville, AL
- Aircraft
- Bell 206B · Helicopter
- Injuries
- 2 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Position
- 32.950°N, 87.131°W
- NTSB ID
- 20001212X20004
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHT On October 5, 1999, at an unknown time, a Bell BHT 206B III, N1285S, registered to Third Coast Aviation, Inc., dba Cane Air Aviation Services, Inc., operating as a Title 14 CFR Part 137 aerial application flight, crashed near the vicinity of Centreville, Alabama. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The helicopter was destroyed and the commercially-rated pilot and a passenger received fatal injuries. The flight departed a clearing adjacent to U.S. Highway 82 about 5.5 miles northwest of Centerville about 1150. According to the ground handling crew, the flight lifted off about 1150 with the spray tract owner in the left front seat for the purpose of outlining the boundaries for arsenal herbicide spraying of a tree tract. No one saw the crash, but when the helicopter did not return within about 30 minutes, the ground crew organized a search of the spray tract, finding nothing. A friend of the passenger, waiting for completion of the spray mission, also became alarmed and alerted sheriff's department personnel, who in turn, alerted their helicopter unit. At about 1504, the wreckage was found by aerial search by a Tuscaloosa Police Department helicopter. The ground crew stated they had fuelled the helicopter with 10 gallons of kerosene at the completion of an earlier spray mission at a location 8 to 10 miles from the accident departure clearing and drove the "batch truck" to join the helicopter and pilot at the clearing. They arrived about 1130 to find the helicopter parked and the pilot waiting. After a briefing between pil
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight inspection of the helicopter's fuel system resulting in an in-flight loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion as a result of overboard porting of fuel when the airframe fuel filter was left in the 'drain and locked' position and the subsequent collision with trees during an attempted autorotation.
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Browse: Alabama · 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.
