LAX97LA088 · McDonnell Douglas 369D
McDonnell Douglas 369D · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX97LA088
- 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
McDonnell Douglas 369D
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas 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
- N7012G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Obstructed
- Fuel system › Contamination
- Fuel system, nozzle › Blocked(partial)
- Pilot in command › Autorotation, improper
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter was being operated in a marine environment. The pilot reported he lost engine power during the initial takeoff climb and autorotated to an open field. The helicopter landed hard and the main rotor blades severed the tailboom. Examination of the engine fuel filter, the fuel control unit (FCU) screen, and the fuel nozzle screen revealed contamination in the fuel system. The helicopter had been inspected in accordance with the manufacturer's 100/300 hour inspection about 21.2 flight hours before the accident. There were no reports of the engine fuel filter bypassing or the fuel filter caution light illuminating. The manufacturer's inspection program does not require the inspection of the fuel screens at the 100 or 300 hour intervals. The airframe manufacturer's maintenance manual does indicate that a conditional inspection be performed after the fuel filter caution light has illuminated. Review of the conditional inspection procedures revealed the FCU screen is to be removed and cleaned; however, there is no requirement for the removal and cleaning of the nozzle screen, which is downstream of the FCU screen, before the part's 2,500 hour overhaul cycle.
Probable cause
fuel system contamination resulting in a partial loss of power, and the failure of the pilot to maintain adequate rotor rpm to cushion the autorotative landing and prevent main rotor blade contact with the tailboom. Factors were the inadequacy of manufacturer's maintenance inspection procedures for aircraft operated in a marine environment.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX97LA088
- Event ID
- 20001208X07317
- Case number
- LAX97LA088
- 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: 746b992b19046138622dae6806154656c7784a6551554094bd40481598343084; retrieved 2026-09-22T20:30:19.330Z.