NYC93LA049 · Schweizer 269C
Schweizer Aircraft Schweizer 269C · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Elmira Corning Regional Airport (ELM) to Elmira Corning Regional Airport (ELM)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC93LA049
- 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
- N6129Q
- Operator
- Schweizer Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Elmira Corning Regional Airport (ELM)To Elmira Corning Regional Airport (ELM)
- 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 · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Copilot/second pilot › Touchdown, improper
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Elmira, NY, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER WAS ON A NEW AIRCRAFT ACCEPTANCE FLIGHT TEST WITH TWO PILOTS ON BOARD. THE LEFT SEAT PILOT REPRESENTED THE PURCHASER AND THE RIGHT SEAT PILOT WAS A COMPANY PILOT AND WAS DESIGNATED PILOT IN COMMAND. THEY WERE PRACTICING A TOUCHDOWN AUTOROTATION. DURING TOUCHDOWN, BOTH PILOTS WERE ON THE CONTROLS AND THE HELICOPTER TOUCHED DOWN IN A RIGHT DRIFT AND WITH THE RIGHT SKID LOWER. AT TOUCHDOWN, THE HELICOPTER ROLLED TO THE RIGHT AND CAME TO REST ON ITS SIDE. NO TRANSFER OF CONTROL PROCEDURES HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED BEFORE TAKEOFF. LEFT SEAT PILOT HAD GONE 13 MONTHS WITHOUT PERFORMING TOUCHDOWN AUTOROTATIONS IN THIS TYPE OF HELICOPTER.
Probable cause
AN UNSTABLE TOUCHDOWN WHICH RESULTED IN A ROLLOVER, INADEQUATE SUPERVISION BY THE PIC, AND FAILURE OF THE PIC TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE HELICOPTER IN A TIMELY MANNER. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LEFT SEAT PILOT'S LACK OF RECENT EXPERIENCE IN TOUCHDOWN AUTOROTATIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC93LA049
- Event ID
- 20001211X16230
- Case number
- NYC93LA049
- 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: 70a8a84ddb9a7036021f5c223be17995591eb4269bbd0951bc6d86f59e82aaf6; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:25:54.052Z.