FTW96LA035 · Helio HT-295
Helio HT-295 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From No airport to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96LA035
- 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
Helio HT-295
- Aircraft type
- Helio HT-295
- Category
- Airplane
- 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
- N68889
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From No airportTo 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
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Pilot in command › Climb, not possible
- Weather condition › Downdraft
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE DEPARTED FROM THE GRASS STRIP FOR A LOCAL FLIGHT AROUND THE RANCH. THE PILOT SELECTED 30 DEGREES OF FLAPS, AND THE AIRPLANE BECAME AIRBORNE PRIOR TO REACHING THE MIDFIELD POINT OF THE 2,600-FOOT RUNWAY. HE STATED THAT THE AIRPLANE CLIMBED TO APPROXIMATELY 100 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND AND THE CLIMB SUBSIDED UNTIL THE AIRPLANE NEARLY LEVELED OFF AS THE AIRPLANE WAS HEADED TOWARDS RISING TERRAIN. HE RETRACTED THE FLAPS TO 20 DEGREES TO IMPROVE THE CLIMB PERFORMANCE. HE MAINTAINED CONTROLLED FLIGHT AS HE MANAGED TO AVOID THE LARGER TREES WHILE LOOKING FOR AN OPEN AREA. CONTROL WAS LOST AS THE PILOT SLOWED THE AIRPLANE PRIOR TO IMPACTING TREES. A 10 TO 20 KNOT HEADWIND PREVAILED AND THE PILOT STATED THAT A DOWNDRAFT WAS 'CREATED BY THE OROGRAPHIC EFFECT OF THE WIND BLOWING OVER THE RIDGE LINE.' SEVERAL WORKERS AT THE RANCH WITNESSED THE AIRPLANE 'ATTEMPTING TO CLIMB IN THE DIRECTION OF RISING TERRAIN WITHOUT GAINING ALTITUDE.'
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S ENCOUNTER WITH A DOWNDRAFT AND HIS INABILITY TO OUTCLIMB RISING TERRAIN. FACTORS WERE THE RISING TERRAIN AND HIGH WINDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96LA035
- Event ID
- 20001207X04844
- Case number
- FTW96LA035
- 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: b42524b95eed47d937734160de6443b7c4b977e2f4582ce8905d7f823956471f; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:01:43.083Z.