NYC94GA066 · Hughes 369A
Hughes 369A · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From 0QU · NORTH KINGSTON, RI to Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's operation. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC94GA066
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation Possible conflict
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Hughes 369A
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 369
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N97LC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 0QU · NORTH KINGSTON, RITo Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU), Morristown, NJ
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of engine power
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Object › Tree(s)
- Pilot in command › Adequate rotor RPM, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Autorotation, improper
- Pilot in command › Lack of familiarity with aircraft
- Pilot in command › Lack of recent experience in type of aircraft
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Northford, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ARMY NATIONAL GUARD HAD TRANSFERRED THE HELICOPTER TO A LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY THE DAY PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE HELICOPTER WAS CRUISING ABOUT 800 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL IN LOOSE FORMATION WITH ANOTHER HELICOPTER, WHEN RADIO AND VISUAL CONTACT WERE LOST. WITNESSES SAW THE HELICOPTER IN A DESCENT AND OBSERVED IT IMPACT TREES. NO DISTRESS CALLS WERE HEARD FROM THE PILOT. EVIDENCE INDICATED THAT THE MAIN AND TAIL ROTOR BLADES WERE AT LOW RPM. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE AND COMPONENTS INDICATED LOW POWER AT IMPACT. NO DISCREPANCIES WERE NOTED DURING THE EXAMINATION. A POST IMPACT FIRE DESTROYED MAJOR PORTIONS OF THE ENGINE AND FUSELAGE. THE PILOT FLEW WITH A FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR FOR 1.1 HOURS THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. THIS WAS THE PILOT'S ONLY FLIGHT TIME IN THIS MODEL HELICOPTER PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. ALSO, OTHER THAN THIS FLIGHT, HE HAD NOT FLOWN ANY HELICOPTER IN OVER 5 YEARS.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS, AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ROTOR RPM DURING THE FORCED LANDING AUTOROTATION, RESULTING IN A LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL AND COLLISION WITH TREES. ALSO CAUSAL TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S LACK OF RECENT HELICOPTER EXPEREINCE AND HIS LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN THIS MODEL HELICOPTER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC94GA066
- Event ID
- 20001206X00975
- Case number
- NYC94GA066
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2e0cd49cc9bb4da89b101e508ab9472a80492238f108394e92304733670db361; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:12:51.157Z.