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SEA96LA144 · Hughes 369D

6 Jul 1996 · McMinnville, OR, United States

Evergreen Helicopters Hughes 369D · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering

From McMinnville Municipal Airport (MMV) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
SEA96LA144
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 369D

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
N5110Y
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From McMinnville Municipal Airport (MMV), ORTo 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
Partial 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

  • Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
  • Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, replacement, improper
  • Miscellaneous, dowel/pin › Not installed
  • Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
  • Throttle/power lever, linkage › Disconnected

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

NTSB narrative

The engine fuel governor had been replaced since the previous flight. About 4 minutes after takeoff, while maneuvering at 400 to 500 feet above ground level, the helicopter's Engine Power Out (EPO) warning light and horn activated. The pilot reduced collective and entered an autorotation, but had to turn downwind to clear trees. The engine N2 (power turbine) RPM was stabilized at 88 to 90 percent during the descent, as compared to a normal range of 102 to 103 percent. The helicopter touched down in a soft field at 20 to 25 MPH forward speed, slid about 30 feet, and rolled over. On-site investigators found the adjustable governor lever control rod disconnected from the governor control lever, which a McDonnell Douglas investigator stated would result in loss of automatic governing of engine RPM. The nut and washer for securing the adjustable control rod to the governor control lever were found in the bottom of the engine compartment, but the cotter pin specified for safetying the nut and washer was not located. The aircraft operating handbook directed pilots to check the fuel control and N2 governor linkages during preflight inspection.

Probable cause

improper maintenance (replacement) and inspection of the engine fuel governor by company maintenance personnel, the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection, and a subsequent disconnect of the adjustable governor lever control rod, which disabled the engine speed governor and resulted in a partial loss of engine power. Factors relating to the accident were: trees and soft terrain in the emergency landing area, and a tailwind during the forced landing touchdown.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record SEA96LA144
Event ID
20001208X06362
Case number
SEA96LA144
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: a6538c74e290f73a5377ea8bf2226b8c82a444e127471e29d1270e720d2ea5aa; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:40:24.045Z.