Bell 47G accident near Arlington, IN
On July 6, 2018, a Bell 47G (helicopter) was involved in an accident near Arlington, IN. 1 person died. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.
- Date
- July 6, 2018
- Place
- Arlington, IN
- Aircraft
- Bell 47G · Helicopter
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Substantial
- Position
- 39.633°N, 85.636°W
- NTSB ID
- 20180706X04105
Official records · CEN18FA258
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn July 6, 2018, about 1720 eastern daylight time, a Bell 47G-2 helicopter, N96195, was substantially damaged when it impacted a corn field near Arlington, Indiana. A postimpact fire ensued. The commercial pilot was fatally injured. The helicopter was owned and operated by Central Indiana Ag Services, LLC as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 137 aerial application flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) flight plan had been filed for the flight. The local flight departed about 1655 from a loading platform at a farm located 1 mile northwest of the accident location. According to the co-owner of the helicopter, the pilot had been flying since 0945 that morning and had completed between 10 and 15 spray runs. The pilot was applying a fungicide to corn crops and each run was averaging 20 minutes. When the pilot did not return after 30 minutes, they initiated search operations. The wreckage was located later that evening. Figure 1 shows the flight track for the accident flight based on GPS latitude and longitude data recovered from a Lowrance AIRMAP 2000c device installed on the helicopter. The device contained data from three flight tracks; one of which was the accident flight. The data did not contain altitude or time data, so the time lengths of the track are not known. The last data point of the final flight recorded was consistent with the wreckage location. There were no witnesses to the accident. Figure 1. Accident Flight Track from Lowrance Airmap AIRCRAFT INFORMATIONLimited maintenance rec
Probable cause
The inflight separation of the upper transmission due to the thread failure of transmission housing attachment bolts, which were installed on the helicopter with thread damage from a prior installation.
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Browse: Indiana · 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.
