LAX94LA352 · Hughes 369E
Hughes 369E · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Hilo International Airport (ITO) to Hilo International Airport (ITO)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA352
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 369E
- 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
- N279F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hilo International Airport (ITO), Hilo, HITo Hilo International Airport (ITO), HI
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 control in flight
- 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 › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A SIGHTSEEING TOUR HELICOPTER WITH FOUR PASSENGERS ENCOUNTERED INSTRUMENT WEATHER CONDITIONS ALONG THE ROUTE OF FLIGHT AND THE PILOT LANDED AT 7,500 FEET MSL TO WAIT FOR THE WEATHER TO CLEAR. DURING THE LANDING, PASSENGERS HEARD AND OBSERVED THE LOW ROTOR RPM ANNUNCIATOR. AFTER THE WEATHER CLEARED, A LOW BATTERY PREVENTED THE ENGINE FROM STARTING. A SECOND HELICOPTER (THE ACCIDENT AIRCRAFT) WITH THE PILOT AND A MECHANIC WAS DISPATCHED TO RETRIEVE THE PASSENGERS. DURING LIFT-OFF, THE PASSENGERS AGAIN HEARD AND OBSERVED THE LOW ROTOR RPM ANNUNCIATOR. THE HELICOPTER'S NOSE PIVOTED ABOUT 45 DEGREES TO THE RIGHT AS THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED DOWNSLOPE. THE HELICOPTER'S LEFT LANDING GEAR SKID STRUCK A SMALL RIDGE AND THE AIRCRAFT ROLLED OVER. BOTH AIRCRAFT AND ALL OCCUPANTS REMAINED OVERNIGHT UNTIL RESCUE THE FOLLOWING DAY.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain adequate main rotor rpm and the resultant inadvertent skid contact with the ground.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA352
- Event ID
- 20001206X02283
- Case number
- LAX94LA352
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-09-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1190a4fff49bfbac136294b5141ccaa7969321e6d4ff5694a82779ce058a8293; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:08:35.954Z.