BFO94LA011 · Schweizer 269C
Schweizer 269C · Accident: loss of engine power during landing
From Elmira Corning Regional Airport (ELM) to NY
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO94LA011
- 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
Schweizer 269C
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer 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
- N41S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Elmira Corning Regional Airport (ELM)To NY
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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 › Flare, not attained
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Elmira, NY, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT AND CO-PILOT WERE PRACTICING AUTOROTATIONS DURING A TEST FLIGHT. DURING THEIR SEVENTH AUTOROTATION, AT AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 100 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND, THE ENGINE LOST POWER. THE AUTOROTATION WAS CONTINUED AND THE CREW REPORTED THEY ENCOUNTERED A DOWNDRAFT. THE HELICOPTER LANDED HARD AND WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED. THE CONTROL TOWER REPORTED THE WINDS FROM A MAGNETIC BEARING OF 240 DEGREES AT 15 KNOTS WITH GUSTS TO 30 KNOTS. IN HIS WRITTEN REPORT CONCERNING THE ACCIDENT, THE PILOT SAID THE WINDS WERE FROM A MAGNETIC BEARING OF 230 DEGREES VARIABLE TO 270 DEGREES AT 23 KNOTS WITH GUSTS TO 35 KNOTS. THE MANUFACTURER'S FLIGHT MANUAL STATES: 'CONTROLLABILITY HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE ADEQUATE IN 20 MPH WINDS FROM ANY DIRECTION.' THE REASON FOR THE ENGINE'S LOSS OF POWER WAS NOT DETERMINED.
Probable cause
A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AT A CRITICAL POINT ON A PRACTICE AUTOROTATION, AND FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ATTAIN A FLARE FOR THE LANDING. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE ADVERSE WIND AND DOWNDRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO94LA011
- Event ID
- 20001211X13704
- Case number
- BFO94LA011
- 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: a239daba76f838fb30bdd24ee41479d98d4e7e711ee4710e6c75a0ca41acf76f; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:45:34.985Z.