FTW91FA002 · Enstrom F28-C
Enstrom F28-C · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW91FA002
- 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
Enstrom F28-C
- Aircraft type
- Enstrom F28
- 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
- N88RA
- Operator
- DR. Donald Gillum
- 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
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical 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, adjustment, improper
- Ignition system, magneto grounding lead (p-lead) › Arcing
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER HAD DEPARTED THE RANCH FOR A LOCAL AREA PLEASURE FLIGHT WHEN AT APPROXIMATELY 300 FEET AGL A LOSS OF POWER OCCURRED. IT WAS OVER A HEAVILY WOODED AREA. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO EXTEND THE GLIDE BY PULLING IN COLLECTIVE PITCH AND MAKING A RIGHT TURN (QUARTERING TAILWIND) TO THE ONLY AVAILABLE CLEAR AREA. THE MAIN ROTOR RPM CONTINUED TO DECAY AND THE HELICOPTER DESCENDED VERTICALLY OUT OF CONTROL TO IMPACT ONTO THE OPEN FIELD. THE SKIDS COLLAPSED AND THE HELICOPTER ROLLED RIGHT. POST-ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THAT A MISALIGNED P-LEAD WIRE IN THE MAGNETO HAD CHAFED AND ARCED. ADDITIONALLY, BOTH P-LEAD CAPS WERE FOUND LOOSE. THE DIRECTOR OF MAINTENANCE FOR THE OPERATOR STATED THAT HE AND HIS MECHANIC DID NOT ADJUST THE MAGNETO TIMING BECAUSE IT WAS TO HARD TOO REACH ON THE HELICOPTER. THE ENGINE WAS TEST RUN WITHOUT DUPLICATION OF THE POWER LOSS.
Probable cause
INSTALLATION ERROR OF COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL. FACTORS WERE THE UNSUITABLE TERRAIN, THE TAILWIND, THE INABILITY OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN MAIN ROTOR RPM, AND THE INADEQUATE ANNUAL INSPECTION BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW91FA002
- Event ID
- 20001212X24462
- Case number
- FTW91FA002
- 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: a6c448960ea2e60dbd9b0c771682732c0606161d75477c6de98a587e5b844aed; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:07:28.136Z.