Bell 206 N5013G

Summary

On 25 June 2020 at about 16:00 local time, a Bell 206 registered N5013G, operated by Hmc Lift Llc, was involved in an accident near Coconut Creek, Florida, United States. One person was on board and one was seriously injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

25 June 2020 at 16:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Coconut Creek, Florida, United States

Coordinates

26.2636, -80.1000

Aircraft

Bell 206

Registration

N5013G

Category

Helicopter

Year built

1979

Engines

1

Operator

Hmc Lift Llc

Operating rule

Part 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load

Purpose of flight

External Load

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Coconut Creek → Coconut Creek

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA20LA229

1 person was seriously injured.

The pilot’s inadequate fuel planning, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to recognize the illumination of the low-fuel caution light.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot was performing an external load flight in the helicopter and stated he checked "fuel status and aircraft systems" before hovering a load into position out of ground effect. At that time, the fuel gauge indicated between 65 and 70 lbs of fuel remained, and he estimated he had about 10 to 15 minutes of operational time remaining to complete the load. The pilot was focused on hovering the helicopter to maintain a 4-ft load height during load delivery when the engine lost power. He maneuvered the helicopter into the wind and away from the ground crew for the forced landing and made a full collective application before entering trees. The helicopter came to rest upright with substantial damage to the fuselage and tailboom. Examination at the accident site found no fuel in the helicopter’s fuel system. When power was applied to the helicopter at the accident site, the fuel gauge indicated 40 lbs, and the low-fuel caution light illuminated. Following recovery, the helicopter was serviced with fuel, and the fuel system worked as designed with no leaks. The engine was started and run with no anomalies noted. The fuel quantity indicator showed 40 lbs above the actual quantity throughout fueling and defueling testing. It could not be determined if the 40-pound discrepancy was due to an out-of-calibration condition pre-accident or to impact forces. The low-fuel caution light, which operated independently of the fuel quantity indicating system, extinguished and illuminated properly during testing. It is likely the light illuminated during the accident flight but was not seen by the pilot due to his attention being outside the helicopter while hovering and maneuvering the load into position. Examination of aircraft and fueling records revealed that the fuel consumption rate of the helicopter over the 4 hours before the accident was about 38 gallons per hour, which was consistent with the helicopter’s mission profiles during that time period of both cruise flight and hover out-of-ground-effect external load operations. The accident is consistent with the pilot inadequately planning for the fuel required to complete the flight, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.