CHI88LA108 · Hughes 269B
Hughes 269B · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From BEHTEL COLLEGE, MN to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI88LA108
- 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
- N9487F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From BEHTEL COLLEGE, MNTo 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
- Initial climb
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › Adequate rotor RPM, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
- Pilot in command › Wind information, disregarded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS EXECUTING A DOWNWIND TAKEOFF, THE WINDS REPORTEDLY GUSTING TO 25 KNOTS, LOADED WITH TWO PASSENGERS, WHEN JUST AFTER TAKEOFF THE PILOT STATED THE HELICOPTER EXPERIENCED A LOSS OF POWER. THE PILOT THEN ATTEMPTED TO EXECUTE AN AUTOROTATION, BUT DURING THE EMERGENCY DESCENT THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL. AS A RESULT THE HELICOPTER STRUCK A MOVING VEHICLE WITH ITS TAIL ROTOR AND SUBSEQUENTLY COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN. THE HELICOPTER WAS APPROXIMATELY 130 LBS UNDER GROSS WT AT THE TIME OF TAKEOFF. WHEN EXAMINED AND TESTED THE ENGINE OPERATED NORMALLY AND NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS WERE FOUND. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DID REVEAL THAT A FUEL NOZZLE HAD BEEN INSTALLED IN THE AIRCRAFT'S FUEL SYSTEM WITH A RESTRICTOR MISSING BUT TO COMPENSATE FOR THE MISSING RESTRICTOR THE FUEL SERVO IDLE MIXTURE WAS SET AT A VERY LEAN SETTING. THIS WAS DETERMINED NOT TO BE A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI88LA108
- Event ID
- 20001213X25647
- Case number
- CHI88LA108
- 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: 3d582b537f996b95194cae05545acd20438bbc498dd9b9b8aa19884607dadce8; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:34:22.846Z.