LAX92GA347 · Hughes 369D
Colorado Helicopters Hughes 369D · Accident: in flight collision with object
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92GA347
- 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 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
- N58425
- Operator
- Colorado 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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
- Other
- 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 object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tower
- 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
- Company/operator management › Inadequate training
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER COLLIDED WITH A POWERLINE TRANSMISSION TOWER WHILE TOWING CABLE ATTACHED BY MEANS OF A CARGO HOOK. THE HELICOPTER WAS MOVING LATERALLY TOWARD THE TOWER WHEN IT HIT THE TOWER WITH THE M/R BLADES. THE BLADE TIP WEIGHT SEPARATED AND PENETRATED THE TAIL BOOM IN TWO PLACES, DAMAGING THE T/R DRIVE SHAFT. THE HELICOPTER SPUN TWICE TO THE RIGHT IN A SLOW DESCENT TETHERED BY THE STEEL CABLE. DURING THE SECOND TURN, PARTS OF THE T/R SEPARATED. WITNESSES DID NOT OBSERVE THE CABLE BEING JETTISONED. THE PILOT WAS NEWLY HIRED, AND DID NOT HAVE ANY PRIOR CLASS C EXTERNAL LOAD EXPERIENCE. HE HAD RECEIVED TRAINING BY THE COMPANY CHIEF PILOT, WHO THEN LEFT THE COMPANY 3 DAYS AFTER THE PILOT WAS HIRED, LEAVING THE PILOT TO WORK ALONE. THE FAA OFFICE HOLDING THE OPERATOR'S CERTIFICATE HAD BEEN NOTIFIED OF THE CHIEF PILOT'S DEPARTURE. THE OFFICE DID NOT, NOR WAS IT REQUIRED TO, NOTIFY THE LOCAL FAA DISTRICT OFFICE OF THE OPERATOR'S EXTERNAL LOAD OPERATIONS WITHIN THAT OFFICE'S GEOGRAPHIC RESPONSIBILITY.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN AN ADEQUATE VISUAL OUTLOOK, AND FAILURE OF THE COMPANY TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE TRAINING. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: INADEQUATE COMPANY SUPERVISION DURING THE OPERATION, AND INADEQUATE SURVEILLANCE BY THE FAA WHICH FAILED TO DETECT THE INADEQUATE TRAINING OF THE PILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92GA347
- Event ID
- 20001211X15431
- Case number
- LAX92GA347
- 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: 18659b6238e4aa31ca842af7d332d99b840b68439b42945b9b449a33e5cd9c77; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:59:54.756Z.