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LAX95LA098 · Schweizer 269C

3 Feb 1995 · Red Bluff, CA, United States

Precision Helicopters Schweizer 269C · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Benton Field (O85) to Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX95LA098
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
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Schweizer 269C

Aircraft type
Schweizer 269
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
N7509H
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Benton Field (O85), Redding, CATo Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD), Modesto, CA
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
In flight encounter with weather
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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Flight into adverse weather, continued
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
  • Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR (CFI) AND DUAL STUDENT DEPARTED IN A HELICOPTER AT NIGHT ON A COMBINATION NIGHT INSTRUCTIONAL/VFR FERRY FLIGHT. THE PILOTS WERE FOLLOWING AN INTERSTATE HIGHWAY, WHEN THEY ENCOUNTERED AN AREA OF REDUCED VISIBILITY. THE CFI TOOK CONTROL OF THE HELICOPTER AND MADE A 180-DEGREE TURN. HE REPORTED THAT HE ENTERED A DESCENT TO IMPROVE VISUAL REFERENCE TO THE GROUND AND SLOWED THE HELICOPTER TO ABOUT 40 KNOTS. HOWEVER, THE HELICOPTER CONTACTED THE SURFACE OF A RICE PADDY, SLID IN A LEVEL ATTITUDE UNTIL IT ENCOUNTERED UNEVEN TERRAIN, THEN ROLLED OVER.

Probable cause

the flight instructor's poor in-flight decision to continue flight into a reduced visibility area, his failure to execute a 180-degree turn in a timely manner, and his failure to maintain clearance from the terrain.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX95LA098
Event ID
20001207X02987
Case number
LAX95LA098
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 1995-02-04.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 1342ec76ce0703bdda99c608540fb08f4c0acdec308575538a46f282a26c52df; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:26:57.175Z.