- Date
- January 2, 1982, 18:37 local (23:37 UTC)
- Place
- Chamblee, GA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N5745YBell 206L-1
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report January 2, 1983
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19820102000149A
- Case key
- 70181
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
While returning to refuel from an air ambulance flight the helicopter yawed left and N2 dropped to about 92% approximately one mile from the airport. At 30-50 feet with airspeed at about 20 knots the aircraft yawed violently to the left with corresponding drops in N2 to 55-60% then surged back to 102-105%. The pilot entered autorotation and touched down hard 300 yards short of his intended landing point. Detroit diesel allison commercial engine bulletin(ceb) A-73-2020 dated 9/7/81 & revised 10/5/81 advocates disarming the N2(electronic) overspeed control system because of reported intermittent and spurious activation of that system. The system was only partially deactivated in compliance with bell alert service bulletin(asb) 206L-81-24 dated 9/11/81 due to the operator's maintenance personnel reporting that they had not received the referenced ceb as of the date of the accident.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N5745Y
- Reported as
- Bell 206L-1
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 45531
- Airframe hours
- 641
- Engine
- Allison 250-C28B, 435 horsepower, turbo shaft
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Rocky Mountain Helicopters, In
- Registered owner
- Rocky Mountain Helicopters, In
- Departed
- Decatur, GA
- Destination
- Lydia, SC
- Airport
- PDK, runway 34, 5,001 × 100 ft, asphalt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 37
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Instrument ratings
- Helicopter
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Flight hours
- 5,060 total · 326 in this make and model · 75 in the last 90 days · 4 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- 90° at 10 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Temperature
- 120 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- PDK
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N5745Y · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.