LAX91LA054 · McDonnell Douglas 369D
Paciffic Helicopter Tours McDonnell Douglas 369D · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From Kahului International Airport (OGG) to Kahului International Airport (OGG)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA054
- 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
McDonnell Douglas 369D
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas 369
- 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
- N1113L
- Operator
- Paciffic Helicopter Tours
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kahului International Airport (OGG), Kahului, HITo Kahului International Airport (OGG)
- 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS ATTEMPTING TO UPRIGHT AN ANIMAL CAGE BY PULLING IT OVER WITH A 'LONG LINE' ATTACHED TO THE HELICOPTER. THERE WAS APPROXIMATELY 115 POUNDS OF FUEL IN THE HELICOPTER'S FUEL TANK. THE POWER PLANT FAILED WHEN THE HELICOPTER'S NOSE RAISED DURING THE TOW. THE HELICOPTER LANDED HARD COLLAPSING THE LEFT REAR LANDING GEAR STRUT AND THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES IMPACTED POSTS AROUND THE PERIMETERS OF THE CORRAL OVER WHICH THE HELICOPTER WAS HOVERING. DUPLICATING THE AIRCRAFT'S PITCH ATTITUDE AND FUEL LOAD, AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, REVEALED THAT THE FUEL PICK-UP POINT IS UN-PORTED AT FUEL QUANTITY LEVELS AT OR BELOW 115 POUNDS.
Probable cause
FUEL STARVATION DUE TO THE UNPORTING OF THE FUEL SUPPLY PICK-UP.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA054
- Event ID
- 20001212X24771
- Case number
- LAX91LA054
- 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 1990-12-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9198313855ae64c86cc03864da40eb2ad7d0ba549ddf02323cc4e58c62f1bd29; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:03:25.098Z.