NYC89LA048 · Enstrom F28F
Enstrom F28F · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From BRADFORD, NH to Concord Municipal Airport (CON)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC89LA048
- 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
Enstrom F28F
- 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
- N5699M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From BRADFORD, NHTo Concord Municipal Airport (CON), Concord, NH
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, poor
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Bradford, NH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ENSTROM F28, PILOTED BY A STUDENT PILOT, MADE A TAKEOFF FROM A PRIVATE PAD ON THE PILOT'S PROPERTY. AFTER GETTING THE HELICOPTER TO A HOVER, THE PILOT REPORTED THE HELICOPTER FELT AS IF IT HAD BEEN PUT IN A SEVERE FORWARD ATTITUDE. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO MAKE A HARD LANDING ON THE PAD, HOWEVER, HE WAS NOW ALMOST OFF THE PAD AND TREES WERE 25 FEET AHEAD. THE MAIN ROTORS CONTACTED TREES. THE PILOT SAID THE FLIGHT CONTROLS WERE WRENCHED FROM HIS HANDS AND THE TAIL STRUCK A STONE WALL. THE FAA REPORTED THAT THE PILOT SAID HE TOOK OFF WITH A TAILWIND.
Probable cause
AN INFLIGHT CONTACT WITH TREES DURING TAKEOFF AFTER THE STUDENT PILOT EXPERIENCED A LOSS OF CONTROL DUE TO HIS FAILURE TO ADEQUATELY COMPENSATE FOR THE WINDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC89LA048
- Event ID
- 20001213X27495
- Case number
- NYC89LA048
- 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: e89faa33d9f6c54d1fd74f226804185a7011c817429bfe05f61b2174b9df3090; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:59:40.516Z.