AlexAir Hughes 369HS accident
Hughes 369HS · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Hana Airport (HNM) to Kahului International Airport (OGG)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX96LA009
- 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 369HS
- 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
- N9205F
- Operator
- Alexair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hana Airport (HNM), HITo Kahului International Airport (OGG), KAHILUI, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING DEPARTURE, UPON REACHING 100 FEET ALTITUDE AND 60 KNOTS AIRSPEED, THE PILOT EXPERIENCED AN AIRFRAME VIBRATION ACCOMPANIED BY A FUEL FILTER CAUTION LIGHT, ENGINE POWER WARNING LIGHT AND HORN, AND LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. IN THE ENSUING AUTOROTATION, A HARD LANDING RESULTED IN THE MAIN ROTOR SEVERING THE TAIL BOOM. SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THERE WAS A LEAK IN THE FUEL FILTER BYPASS SWITCH WHICH PERMITTED AIR TO ENTER THE SUCTION-FED ENGINE FUEL SYSTEM. INSPECTION OF THE SWITCH DISCLOSED LEAKAGE BETWEEN THE MATING FLANGE HALVES DUE TO DETERIORATED SAFETY WIRING. THE LAST SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE ON THE AIRCRAFT WAS PERFORMED 77 HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
the loss of engine power due to inadequate maintenance inspection of the fuel system which permitted air to enter the engine fuel supply. A factor in the accident was the pilot's improper execution of the autorotation landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX96LA009
- Event ID
- 20001207X04722
- Case number
- LAX96LA009
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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 1995-10-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 190acae14859b3f80756a9c2bf385e76aa6b854d3b57ef1b41b38fbc0492647a; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:57:09.645Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N9205F; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.