Accident Overview
On August 16, 2019, about 0945 central daylight time, a Bell 206B helicopter (registration N106PD) sustained substantial damage when it was involved in an accident near Blair, Nebraska. The two commercial pilots on board sustained minor injuries. The flight was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations public aircraft flight.
Flight and Training Maneuver
According to the Omaha Police Department Air Support Unit, the helicopter had departed Blair Municipal Airport (BTA) for a patrol flight over Omaha, Nebraska. After about one hour, it headed back to BTA. Approximately 4 miles south of runway 31 at BTA, the pilot-in-command (PIC), who is also a flight instructor and occupied the right seat, decided to conduct emergency procedure training with a simulated governor failure of the turboshaft engine prior to landing. The co-pilot, who is not a flight instructor, was in the left seat. The intent was to recover from the simulated failure at a safe airspeed and altitude before executing a normal landing.
Sequence of Events
The PIC initiated the simulated governor failure by rolling the throttle down enough to take the governor offline while maintaining main rotor rpm in the green (normal) range. The helicopter descended while maintaining airspeed until over the runway. At about 40 ft above ground level and 45 knots, the PIC announced his intention to complete the training maneuver and rolled the throttle back to the full open position. He confirmed the main rotor rpm in the green range and verbally announced it. All other indications appeared normal.
As the helicopter entered normal operating conditions, the PIC applied aft cyclic to slow down and began air taxiing to the parking pad to the east. At that moment, he heard the low main rotor rpm audible horn. He confirmed a loss of engine power by referencing cockpit indications. The helicopter descended very rapidly. The PIC reduced the collective briefly to regain main rotor energy and then applied collective to cushion the landing. The helicopter impacted the runway and came to rest on its left side. The PIC reported it was unknown if the engine was still running after impact. He executed an emergency shutdown, and both pilots egressed without further incident.
Damage and Examination
The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the main rotor system, the fuselage, the tailboom, and the tail rotor system. A postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. A review of the helicopter's maintenance records showed no evidence of any uncorrected discrepancies with the airframe and engine.