A federal probe has determined a 2013 helicopter crash in Burnham was likely due to the pilot’s failure to control the craft’s direction while flying low to track a black bear wearing a transmitter.

No mechanical problems were found with the Point of View Helicopter Services helicopter that crashed into land and trees on July 3, 2013, knocking the pilot unconscious and leaving a passenger with minor injuries. The National Transportation Safety Board released its probable cause report August 7.

After the crash, the passenger, who’d only been on a helicopter one other time, heard fuel leaking and helped the pilot get out of the helicopter; the passenger then walked to a nearby road for help, according to the report.

The craft was flying about 50 feet over tree tops when the pilot started making a right turn called a fading right turn, meaning it had a sideways component to it, the report states; about two seconds later, with the helicopter then about 30 to 40 feet over the trees, the turn “escalated” into a spin, the report continues. The pilot’s and the passenger’s statements to investigators differ, with the pilot describing the turn as clockwise and the passenger, counter-clockwise.

“The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be the pilot’s failure to maintain directional control while maneuvering, which resulted in the loss of tail rotor effectiveness, an uncontrolled descent, and an in-flight collision with tress and terrain,” the report states. “Contributing to the accident was the pilot's intentional operation at an altitude too low to allow for recovery.”

The report is the final one and the end of the NTSB’s investigation into last year’s crash, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said on August 8.

Asked if the cause amounted to pilot error, Knudson said that is not a term NTSB would typically use; the NTSB’s investigations are not about assigning blame, but rather determining a cause and, in some cases, putting out new safety recommendations, he said in Friday’s telephone interview.

A message left Friday afternoon for Point of View Helicopter Services in Bowdoinham was not immediately returned.

A Waldo County Sheriff’s Office press release following the crash identified the pilot as a 58-year-old Bowdoinham man; the passenger, a 27-year-old woman associated with Unity College. The college had been studying black bears since 2012, but it was not known if that helicopter flight was part of the study, the Penbay Pilot reported at the time.