What happened
On July 29, 2024, at approximately 13:30 central standard time, a Bell 206-B3 helicopter, registration N94XA, was destroyed during an aerial application flight near Nashua, Iowa. The aircraft was being operated by Xtreme Aviation LLC for the purpose of spraying insecticide and fungicide over local cornfields. The pilot sustained 1 fatal injury.
According to GPS data from an onboard guidance system, the helicopter departed a farm approximately 3 statute miles west of Nash and performed spraying operations south of the accident site. At 12:44, the aircraft began an east/west pattern over a field that was bisected by a power transmission line. The flight track ended at 13:26:50, roughly 1,750 feet west of the crash site.
Upon impact, the helicopter came to rest inverted in a cornfield, approximately 200 feet southeast of a powerline tower. The aircraft was oriented on a heading of 280° true. The crash site contained all major structural components of the aircraft.
The investigation
Investigators located a section of the main rotor blade afterbody near the powerlines, approximately 10 feet east of the wires. Two severed powerline conductors were found near the wreckage. While the upper wire strike cutter showed no signs of contact, the lower wire strike cutter exhibited evidence of contact with the wires.
Mechanical examination of the airframe revealed the following:
- The airframe was fragmented due to impact forces.
- The mast was fractured just below the main rotor hub static contact stop, consistent with bending overload.
- The main driveshaft was fractured at the forward main transmission flexures.
- The engine had separated between the gearbox and the exhaust collector support/hot section.
- The turbine section showed extensive crush damage.
- The fuel system contained Jet A1 fuel, and while foreign material was found in the airframe and engine filters, the filters were not occluded, and the fuel appeared clean.
An operator representative performed a reconnaissance flight along the last known flight path. He noted that the powerlines were masked by a hill and were nearly invisible against the background of the cornfield. He further stated that while flying at spray height, the transmission tower to the left was not visible, and the subsequent tower to the right was outside his field of view.
An automated 911 call was placed from the pilot's iPhone immediately following the impact.