Bell Helicopter Textron Canada 206L-4 N409AE

Summary

On 30 April 2026 at about 07:06 local time, a Bell Helicopter Textron Canada 206L-4 registered N409AE was involved in an accident near Chapmansboro, Tennessee, United States. 4 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

30 April 2026 at 07:06

Classification

Accident

Location

Chapmansboro, Tennessee, United States

Coordinates

36.3408, -87.1666

Aircraft

Bell Helicopter Textron Canada 206L-4

Registration

N409AE

Category

Helicopter

Year built

2010

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter

Purpose of flight

Other Work Use

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

ERA26LA194

Nobody was injured.

Failure of the volunteer fire department personnel to properly monitor and secure a stretcher, which resulted in it rolling into the helicopter’s tail rotor.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The air medical helicopter had responded to a call for service, and after landing was sitting idle with the engine running and its rotors turning while the flight medical crew and two local volunteer fire department personnel transferred a patient from a stretcher into the helicopter. Once the patient was loaded, a flight medical crew member told the fire department volunteers they could leave the rotor disk area while they finished securing the patient inside the helicopter. A flight medical crew member then observed one of the volunteers move the stretcher back and away from the helicopter; however, the two volunteers did not leave the rotor disc area. A few moments later, a flight medical crew member watched the unattended and unsecured stretcher roll downhill toward the helicopter’s spinning tail rotor. The stretcher collided with the tail boom and the tail rotor resulting in substantial damage to both tail rotor blades and minor damage to the tail boom.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.