FTW91FA123 · Hughes 269B
Southern Flying Service Hughes 269B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From MO1 · Memphis, TN to Star City Municipal Airport (55M)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW91FA123
- 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 269B
- 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
- N11XC
- Operator
- Southern Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From MO1 · Memphis, TNTo Star City Municipal Airport (55M), Star City, AR
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 maintenance personnel › Maintenance, service bulletin/letter, not performed
- Rotor drive system, clutch assembly › Frayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED VERTICALLY IN A HEAVILY WOODED SWAMP. EVIDENCE INDICATED THAT THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED WITH A HIGH VERTICAL RATE OF DESCENT AND LOW ROTOR RPM. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE BELT DRIVE CLUTCH ENGAGEMENT CABLE HAD SEPARATED DUE TO ABRASION CAUSED BY INTERNAL CONTACT BETWEEN THE CABLE AND ASSEMBLY COMPONENTS. SEPARATION OF THE CABLE RESULTED IN A DISCONNECT BETWEEN THE ENGINE AND THE TRANSMISSION. REVIEW OF THE AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE RECORDS COULD NOT DETERMINE THE EXACT TOTAL TIME ON THE CABLE; HOWEVER, THE RECORDS DID INDICATE THAT THE CABLE HAD LAST BEEN DISASSEMBLED AND INSPECTED ABOUT 636.8 HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. A MANUFACTURER'S SERVICE INFORMATION NOTICE HAD BEEN ISSUED ON THE CABLE ASSEMBLY WHICH REQUIRED AN INITIAL INSPECTION WITHIN 50 HOURS AND A RECURRING INSPECTION EVERY 400 HOURS THEREAFTER, UNTIL THE UNIT WAS REPLACED WITH AN IMPROVED MODEL. THE AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE RECORDS DID NOT INDICATE COMPLIANCE WITH THE INFORMATION NOTICE; HOWEVER, THE OPERATOR STATED THAT THE INSPECTIONS WERE BEING PERFORMED.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE CLUTCH CONTROL CABLE DUE TO FRAYING WHICH INITIATED THE FORCED LANDING AND THE OPERATOR'S FAILURE TO PERFORM RECOMMENDED INSPECTIONS ON THE AIRCRAFT. FACTORS WERE THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ROTOR RPM AND THE UNSUITABLE TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW91FA123
- Event ID
- 20001212X17548
- Case number
- FTW91FA123
- 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: 509db9c3fbe0f6d6b8256c3b7e40b7d94506375e9437bb90a924c6744ca58129; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:42:03.535Z.