BFO93FA019 · Hughes 269C
Bucholtz Aviation Hughes 269C · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
From Niagara Falls International Airport (IAG) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93FA019
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Hughes 269C
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 269
- 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
- N1088Z
- Operator
- Bucholtz Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Niagara Falls International Airport (IAG), NIAGRA FALLS, NYTo 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 collision with object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REQUESTED AND RECEIVED A SPECIAL VFR CLEARANCE TO DEPART ON A RADIO TRAFFIC WATCH FLIGHT INTO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS. ABOUT 90 MINUTES LATER, THE PILOT REQUESTED ANOTHER SPECIAL VFR CLEARANCE TO LAND BACK AT THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. NO PROBLEMS WERE REPORTED BY THE PILOT. RADAR DATA INDICATED THE HELICOPTER WAS TRAVELLING BETWEEN 50 AND 60 KNOTS AND WAS ABOUT 400 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND JUST PRIOR TO LOSS OF RADAR CONTACT. THE HELICOPTER IMPACTED POWER TRANSMISSION LINES 194 FEET ABOVE A RIVER AND DESCENDED INTO THE RIVER. LOW CLOUD CEILINGS, AN OBSCURED SKY, AND LOW VISIBILITY PREVAILED. IT WAS DUSK. AN EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE DID NOT REVEAL ANY MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS.
Probable cause
IMPROPER INFLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CLEARANCE FROM AN OBSTACLE DURING FLIGHT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT INCLUDE POOR VISIBILITY AND WEATHER CONDITIONS AT DUSK, AND THE PILOT'S EXCESSIVE AIRSPEED FOR THE CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93FA019
- Event ID
- 20001211X11654
- Case number
- BFO93FA019
- 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: 19ca9d5645bddeec8aece7daa6b9918ffbc989a98a038385178ab3b4b50ca12e; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:43:57.219Z.