LAX95LA136 · Hughes 269A
Hughes 269A · Accident: roll over during landing
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA136
- 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 269A
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 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
- N8873F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), CATo not recorded
- 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 · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Landing gear, main gear shock absorbing strut › Pressure too low
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Rotor system, main rotor hub lead-lag stop/damper › Pressure too low
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT ENCOUNTERED GROUND RESONANCE AFTER LANDING. THE HELICOPTER HAD TOUCHED DOWN LIGHTLY ON ITS LANDING GEAR SYSTEM AND BEGAN TO OSCILLATE FROM SIDE TO SIDE. THE HELICOPTER CONTINUED TO OSCILLATE UNTIL ONE SIDE OF THE HELICOPTER LANDING GEAR STRUCTURE FAILED. THE HELICOPTER THEN ROLLED ON ITS SIDE. THE FOUR LANDING GEAR DAMPERS AND TWO MAIN ROTOR DAMPERS WERE FOUND OUT OF LIMITS. THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT WAS THE FIRST FLIGHT AFTER A 50-HOUR INSPECTION WAS PERFORMED. DURING THE INSPECTION, THE LANDING GEAR DAMPERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN CHECKED FOR PROPER EXTENSION. THE LANDING GEAR AND MAIN ROTOR DAMPERS SHOULD ALSO BE CHECKED BY THE PILOT DURING HIS PREFLIGHT PREPARATION OF THE HELICOPTER.
Probable cause
the operation of the helicopter with improper adjustment of the landing gear and main rotor dampers due to the inadequate maintenance inspection of the helicopter by maintenance personnel and an inadequate preflight inspection by the pilot.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA136
- Event ID
- 20001207X03146
- Case number
- LAX95LA136
- 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: e12555de0cbf2966a5d1b79bc4217ee7f7638a6e22b81e0076d8a73c4b6b8139; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:22:05.415Z.