MIA93LA143 · Hughes 369HS
Magic Helicopters Hughes 369HS · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA93LA143
- 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 369HS
- 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
- N500RT
- Operator
- Magic Helicopters
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING CRUISE FLIGHT, THE ENGINE EXPERIENCED A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER. DURING THE DESCENT FOR A PRECUATIONARY LANDING, THE ENGINE EXPEREINCED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. THE PILOT INITIATED AN EXAGGERATED DECELERATION MANEUVER DUE TO UNSUITABLE TERRAIN ENCOUNTERED DURING THE AUTOROTATIVE FORCED LANDING. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT THE NO. 2 BEARING FAILED DUE TO UNDETERMINED REASONS ALLOWING THE COMPRESSOR IMPELLER TO CONTACT THE COMPRESSOR SHROUD. THE FAILED BEARING MATERIAL WAS FOUND ON BOTH MAGNETIC PLUGS LOCATED IN THE GEARBOX. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF OIL STARVATION TO THE BEARING AND IT WAS NOTED THAT THE BEARING WAS MANUFACTURED FROM CORRECT MATERIAL.
Probable cause
UNSUITABLE TERRAIN ENCOUNTERED DURING THE AUTOROTATIVE FORCED LANDING. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO SEIZURE OF THE COMPRESSOR IMPELLER FOLLOWING FAILURE OF THE NO.2 BEARING FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA93LA143
- Event ID
- 20001211X12673
- Case number
- MIA93LA143
- 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: 17c4ad5bdcc2ac5768c572acff6ff00abb8375270d2de0af0730c22ed8d6e526; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:55:25.924Z.