NTSB Investigators Examine Wreckage of Historic Helicopter

A team of NTSB investigators has arrived in Logan, West Virginia for purpose of beginning the investigation of a 22 June 2022 accident involving a Bell UH-1B helicopter.

Six lives were lost when the helicopter went down in the Kelly Mountain area along state Route 17 shortly before 17:00 EDT. The tail section of the Vietnam-era Huey came to rest in the highway, while the helicopter’s forward section appeared to have crashed through the thoroughfare’s guardrail and into the adjacent hillside.

The downed aircraft—N98F—was owned by MARPAT Aviation, a well-established and widely respected FAA repair station based on Logan County Airport. She was the 488th of 10,005 UH-1s built, and was likely the world’s oldest flying Huey.

The historic aircraft—nicknamed Miss Fit—was first flown in Vietnam in 1962. She returned to the United States in 1971 and subsequently served as a National Guard transport, an air-ambulance, an agricultural aircraft, a firefighter, and movie star, appearing in films such as Die Hard, The Rock, Mars Attacks, Broken Arrow, and others.

At the time of the accident, N98F was taking part in the Huey Reunion, an undertaking MARPAT Aviation has organized and hosted for six-years.

The accident flight was the last planned flight of 22 June, and its route differed from that of tour flights flown earlier in the day. The helicopter was neither equipped, nor required to be equipped with either a cockpit voice-recorder or a flight-data recorder.

The wreckage of N98F will be recovered from the accident scene on 24 June, and will be transported to a secure location for further examination.

The Federal Aviation Administration, Bell Textron, and Ozark Aeroworks are parties to the investigation and will provide relevant technical and other information as requested by NTSB investigators.

FMI: www.marpataviation.com/main