LAX00LA226 · Hughes 269C
Max & Ene'S Aeroplanes Hughes 269C · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX00LA226
- 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 269C
- 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
- N9692F
- Operator
- Max & Ene'S Aeroplanes
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY)To 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Check pilot › Remedial action, delayed
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Settling with power, encountered
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Santa Clarita, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter touched down on the downside portion of a hill, struck a tree, and became inverted. The purpose of the flight was to conduct a new hire checkout. The purpose of the landing was to retrieve a door that had come off in flight the day prior to the accident. During the approach for landing the new hire pilot performed a high and low reconnaissance of the area. This was to check for wind direction and verify the landing area was clear of obstructions. About 100 feet from the intended touchdown point, the wind changed direction and became a tailwind. He attempted to compensate for the loss of altitude by increasing power, but the engine did not have enough power. The helicopter was still controllable with full left rudder. The helicopter started to settle and the engine and rotor rpm were decaying. When the new hire attempted to fly down hill to regain rpm, he felt resistance on the controls, but did not recall the check pilot indicating that he was going to take the controls. The check pilot instructed the other pilot to verify his rpm and verbalized that he was taking the flight controls. He attempted to perform a low rpm recovery. He reduced the collective and rolled on the throttle. However, he noted that the throttle was already in the full on position. He attempted to recover rpm by moving the collective up and down to clear the ridgeline. The helicopter continued to settle and landed hard. No discrepancies were noted with engine power.
Probable cause
Settling with power precipitated by a wind direction change during the approach to land sequence and the check pilot's delayed remedial action to correct the event. Factors in the accident were crew resource management coordination concerning flight control authority and unsuitable terrain for landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX00LA226
- Event ID
- 20001212X21267
- Case number
- LAX00LA226
- 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: 2fe1ddaf18ab265e2b27b8ded672a712286a9b50d72294649604cc3f66c3ace2; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:48:27.582Z.