LAX91LA391 · Schweizer 269C
Pacific Aviation Group Schweizer 269C · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during an uncontrolled descent
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA391
- 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
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
- N6128Q
- Operator
- Pacific Aviation Group
- 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
- Uncontrolled descent
- 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 terrain/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › Autorotation, attempted
- Pilot in command › Descent, uncontrolled
- Pilot in command › Touchdown, abrupt
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT, WHO HAD LOGGED A TOTAL OF 36 FLYING HOURS IN THIS MAKE AND MODEL HELICOPTER DURING THE PAST 5 MONTHS, TOOK OFF FOR A PRACTICE FLIGHT APPROXIMATELY 20 MINUTES PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE ACCIDENT A GROUND WITNESS OBSERVED THE HELICOPTER MANEUVERING FROM SIDE TO SIDE AT A LOW ALTITUDE AND HEARD A POPPING OR SPUTTERING NOISE EMANATING FROM THE HELICOPTER PRIOR TO THE COLLISION WITH THE GROUND. THE HELICOPTER IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A NOSE HIGH, TAIL LOW ATTITUDE. THE FRONT SECTION OF THE SKIDS WAS NOT DAMAGED. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE AFTER THE ACCIDENT DID NOT DISCLOSE ANY EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE.
Probable cause
THE STUDENT PILOT ENTRY INTO AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT WHILE ATTEMPTING TO PERFORM AN AUTOROTATION. THE STUDENT PILOT'S LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE WAS A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA391
- Event ID
- 20001212X18121
- Case number
- LAX91LA391
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1991-09-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 669f7877b929be0feb15f012fe14701e20d4761e5ac2be63d42fc323ae5f3a0b; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:35:16.677Z.