CHI94LA279 · Hughes TH-55A
Hughes TH-55A · Accident: roll over during landing
From Abrams Municipal Airport (4D0) to UNKNOWN
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA279
- 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
- 0 · 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
- 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 TH-55A
- Aircraft type
- Hughes TH-55
- 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
- N20SD
- Operator
- Jesse Jane Stafford
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Abrams Municipal Airport (4D0), Grand Ledge, MITo UNKNOWN
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Roll over
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A HELICOPTER LAYING ON ITS SIDE WAS FOUND BY THE MANAGER OF THE HOUGHTON LAKE STATE AIRPORT WHEN HE OPENED FOR BUSINESS. THE OWNER OF THE HELICOPTER REPORTED THE HELICOPTER WAS STOLEN DURING THE NIGHT. SEVERAL WEEKS LATER THE POLICE ARRESTED A FEMALE WHO ADMITTED SHE STOLE THE HELICOPTER TO HELP HER BOYFRIEND ESCAPE FROM PRISON. SHE HAD A STUDENT HELICOPTER CERTIFICATE AND ABOUT 10 HOURS INSTRUCTION. SHE SAID THE HELICOPTER CRASHED AND ROLLED OVER WHILE SHE WAS TRYING TO LAND IN HIGH WINDS.
Probable cause
failure of the pilot to maintain control of the aircraft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA279
- Event ID
- 20001206X02004
- Case number
- CHI94LA279
- 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: dc90bfeb9ec881a9d6d340a110f1d780187475df9a59e082821d435b2e8405d1; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:49:01.232Z.