LAX92FA154 · Hughes 269C
Mojave Aviation Hughes 269C · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA154
- 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
- 1 · 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 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
- N9597F
- Operator
- Mojave Aviation
- 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
- 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 control in flight
- 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
- Dual student › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CERTIFICATED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR AND A PRIVATE PILOT/COMMERCIAL STUDENT, WERE ON A DUAL INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT IN A HELICOPTER, TO PRACTICE PINNACLE APPROACHES, LANDINGS, AND TAKEOFFS. THE AREA OF LANDING WAS LOCATED AT ABOUT 3,600 FEET MSL, NEAR THE TOP OF A STEEP MOUNTAIN RIDGE. TWO APPROACHES TO THE PINNACLE LANDING ZONE RESULTED IN ONE GO-AROUND, AND ONE LANDING. THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT REPORTED THAT THE STUDENT TENDED TO ALLOW THE MAIN ROTOR RPM TO DROOP WHEN ADDING POWER TO TERMINATE THE LANDING APPROACH. ON THE THIRD APPROACH, THE RPM AGAIN STARTED TO DECREASE. THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT TOOK CONTROL OF THE HELICOPTER AND ATTEMPTED TO INCREASE THE THROTTLE SETTING AND DECREASE COLLECTIVE PITCH TO RECOVER FROM THE LOW ROTOR RPM CONDITION. MAIN ROTOR RPM CONTINUED TO DECREASE AND THE INSTRUCTOR ATTEMPTED TO LAND AT THE EDGE OF THE RIDGE. THE HELICOPTER SLID BACKWARDS OVER THE EDGE OF THE MOUNTAIN AND BEGAN TO BREAK APART, TUMBLING 600 FEET DOWN THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. A POST CRASH FIRE ERUPTED DURING THE BREAK-UP SEQUENCE. THE INSTRUCTOR WAS EJECTED FROM HELICOPTER. THE STUDENT REMAINED IN THE WRECKAGE AND RECEIVED FATAL INJURIES. THE POST ACCIDENT WRECKAGE EXAMINATION DISCLOSED NO EVIDENCE OF ANY PREEXISTING MECHANICAL FAILURES OR MALFUNCTIONS.
Probable cause
A FAILURE OF THE STUDENT PILOT TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE ROTOR RPM. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS A FAILURE OF THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT TO ADEQUATELY SUPERVISE THE TRAINING FLIGHT AND A DELAY IN CORRECTING A LOW ROTOR RPM CONDITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA154
- Event ID
- 20001211X14311
- Case number
- LAX92FA154
- 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: 7a1461a2c119e9388a5a2d1e20400c4766b0f5d33762ac2812d3413a3daed1f8; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:18:15.780Z.