- Date
- January 24, 1984, 14:00 local (20:00 UTC)
- Place
- Venice, LA
- Injuries
- 6 minor
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N5745MBell 206L-1
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19840124029099A
- Case key
- 21248
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
About 10 min after departing an offshore platform, the plt encountered an area of fog. He descended to aprx 200 ft, slowed to 40 KTS & started turning back. As he was turning, he was looking to the right to locate a petroleum production facility to use as a reference point when the helicopter struck the water & crashed. No serious injuries occurred, but rescue was delayed about 5 hrs due to deteriorating wx.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N5745M
- Reported as
- Bell 206L-1
- Category
- Helicopter
- Engine
- Allison 250-C28B, 435 horsepower, turbo shaft
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Petroleum Helicopters Inc
- Departed
- Main Pass Blk77, GM
- Destination
- Venice, LA
- Flight plan
- Company VFR
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
- 51
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane, Helicopter
- Medical
- Unknown, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Flight hours
- 11,881 total · 1,867 in this make and model · 143 in the last 90 days · 4 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Lowest ceiling
- 300 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 59 °F, dew point 59 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.