LAX92LA303 · Schweizer 269C
Pacific Shore Aviation Schweizer 269C · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Van Nuys Airport (VNY)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA303
- 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
- N280CA
- Operator
- Pacific Shore Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Van Nuys Airport (VNY)
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Total 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, adjustment, improper
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Simi Valley, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER INSTRUCTOR PILOT AND DUAL STUDENT WERE PRACTICING AUTOROTATIONS THAT WERE TERMINATED WITH POWER RECOVERIES AT A 3-FOOT HOVER. DURING THE SIXTH AUTOROTATIVE APPROACH THE ENGINE FAILED AND THE HELICOPTER LANDED HARD. THE HARD LANDING SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED THE HELICOPTER. AN ENGINE OPERATIONAL TEST AFTER THE ACCIDENT DISCLOSED THAT THE ENGINE WOULD NOT OPERATE AT IDLE RPM. THE CFI HAD LOGGED 154 TOTAL HELICOPTER FLIGHT HOURS OF WHICH 9 HOURS WERE IN THE ACCIDENT HELICOPTER MAKE AND MODEL. HE HAD ALSO GIVEN 20 HOURS OF HELICOPTER FLIGHT INSTRUCTION.
Probable cause
THE COMPANY'S MAINTENACE PERSONNEL IMPROPER ADJUSTMENT OF THE AIRCRAFT'S IDLE RPM AND THE FAILURE OF THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE ROTOR RPM AFTER THE ENGINE FAILED. THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT'S LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE IN TYPE OF OPERATION IS A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA303
- Event ID
- 20001211X15198
- Case number
- LAX92LA303
- 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: e06bc09660c4c9c4fe5b975db2e6759d9e58b9d12b51d048f556af3ab6448cf0; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:56:11.208Z.