SEA88LA093 · Hughes 269C
Hughes 269C · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Roberts Field (RDM) to Prineville Airport (S39)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA88LA093
- 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
- N751AM
- Operator
- Jeannie Dent
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roberts Field (RDM), Redmond, ORTo Prineville Airport (S39), Prineville, OR
- 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
- Pilot in command › Autorotation, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, excessive
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REDUCED POWER FOR LANDING AND A HIGH SINK RATE DEVELOPED. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO INCREASE POWER TO CORRECT THE SINK RATE BUT GOT NO RESPONSE. ROTOR RPM'S WERE DIMINISHING, SO THE PLT LOWERED THE COLLECTIVE TO REGAIN RPM'S. THE PILOT ELECTED MAKE AN AUTOROTATION. THE PILOT HELD THE HELICOPTER IN A FLARE UNTIL AIRSPEED WAS EXHAUSTED. AT ABOUT 5 FEET AGL THE HELICOPTER DESCENDED VERTICALLY UNTIL IT STRUCK THE GROUND, BREAKING OFF THE RIGHT SKID. THE HELICOPTER THEN ROLLED ONTO ITS RIGHT SIDE STRIKING THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA88LA093
- Event ID
- 20001213X25822
- Case number
- SEA88LA093
- 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 1988-05-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3aa1378cd72c398f819a346fe8ccbcf2ba5c22753f8ee0262d204bb56a12390a; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:34:09.022Z.