Low clouds and low visibility permeated an area in the Gulf of Mexico when a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger crashed en route to an offshore drilling platform, killing the pilot and all four passengers.
The U.S National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in its final report on the accident that the probable cause was the pilot’s “failure to maintain clearance from the water,” and that a contributing factor was the inadvertent encounter with instrument meteorological conditions (IMC).
The report also noted that there was no indication that the pilot “had obtained a formal weather briefing from a recorded source.”
The pilot met his four passengers in Sabine Pass, Texas, U.S., the morning of the accident. Witnesses saw him perform a preflight inspection and prepare for the flight to the offshore drilling platform — West Cameron 157 — where he planned to drop off the passengers, all employees of Island Operating Co.
At 0722 local time, the helicopter departed from Sabine Pass…
