NYC96FA003 · Enstrom 280C
Enstrom 280C · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Quakertown Airport (UKT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC96FA003
- 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
- 2 · 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
Enstrom 280C
- Aircraft type
- Enstrom 280
- 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
- N976BT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Quakertown Airport (UKT)To 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
- Maneuvering
- 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)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Ignition system › Inoperative
- Ignition system, magneto › Not secured
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot/owner and passenger departed on a local flight. Five minutes after takeoff, while orbiting the airport at 200 to 300 feet above the ground, the engine lost power and the pilot autorotated into trees. Examination of the wreckage revealed the single-drive dual-magneto was separated from the engine. The two magneto attaching studs on the engine were intact, and undamaged. No nuts, washers, or flange clamps were attached to the studs. The flange of the magneto was also undamaged. The two flange clamps were found in the debris below the helicopter. During a previous flight, the pilot successfully autorotated to a field when the dual magneto failed. The pilot had a mechanic replace the magneto, and the mechanic performed ground runs successfully. This was the first flight after the magneto change.
Probable cause
improper installation of the magneto by maintenance personnel, which resulted in the loss of ignition and the loss of engine power. A factor relating to the accident was: the lack of suitable terrain for an emergency landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC96FA003
- Event ID
- 20001207X04764
- Case number
- NYC96FA003
- 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: 5e32a7455cb6cbea4c8124b0120a2c9b564fdf000fae41268a952221fc63a128; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:34:38.865Z.