SEA92LA005 · Hughes 269B
Precision Helicopters Hughes 269B · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92LA005
- 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
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
- N9474F
- Operator
- Precision 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 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OF THE HUGHES 269B ALLOWED ROTOR RPM TO DROP OUT OF THE GREEN ARC, WHILE MANEUVERING OVER AN ORCHARD IN ORDER TO KNOCK HAZELNUTS OFF OF TREES WITH HIS ROTOR WASH. HE WAS UNABLE TO REDUCE COLLECTIVE BECAUSE OF THE TREES, AND HE COULD NOT ACCELERATE ENOUGH TO INCREASE ROTOR SPEED PRIOR TO SETTLING INTO THE ORCHARD. AFTER THE ACCIDENT, THE PILOT STATED THAT HE HAD TAKEN ON A PASSENGER AND FILLED THE AIRCRAFT WITH FUEL, WITHOUT RECOMPUTING THE PERFORMANCE DATA.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ROTOR RPM. FACTORS INCLUDE INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PLANNING, OVERCONFIDENCE IN AIRCRAFT'S ABILITY, AND NON-SUITABLE TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92LA005
- Event ID
- 20001212X18390
- Case number
- SEA92LA005
- 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 1991-10-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9c71d55d44f7076a3792a331ae962a54c74bcb94dbe4d359ac5fc8d3ad6d28bc; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:36:57.943Z.