Soloy Helicopters Hughes 369D accident
Hughes 369D · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC93LA158
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
- N5074R
- Operator
- Soloy 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · turn to reverse direction
- 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 terrain/water
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER MAKING A LOW PASS OVER A MOUNTAINOUS WORK SITE THE HELICOPTER STARTED A RIGHT TURN. THE PILOT SAID HE SOON REALIZED THAT THE HELICOPTER WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO OUT CLIMB THE STEEP TERRAIN, SO HE STARTED A TURN BACK TO THE LEFT. THEN THE RIGHT SKID HIT THE MOUNTAINSIDE, CAUSING THE SKID AND THE RIGHT HALF OF THE CROSSTUBES TO BE TORN FROM THE AIRFRAME. SOME ADDITIONAL DAMAGE WAS ALSO SUSTAINED BY THE FUSELAGE. THE HELICOPTER RETURNED TO ITS NEARBY BASE CAMP AND LANDED ON A MAKESHIFT SUPPORT STRUCTURE. THE PILOT SAID HE MIGHT HAVE ENCOUNTERED A DOWNDRAFT. THE PILOT AND FOUR PASSENGERS SAID THE WINDS WERE GUSTY AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION, AND HIS DELAY IN TAKING REMEDIAL ACTION. FACTORS WERE THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AND GUSTY WINDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC93LA158
- Event ID
- 20001211X13044
- Case number
- ANC93LA158
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1993-08-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4fe7d200b444e9f2e0e2150904577fb3d6bb2b22d22d9b7019b8507d0f704d73; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:30:44.691Z.