SEA89LA114 · Hughes BENSEN B-8M BENSEN B-8
Hughes BENSEN B-8M BENSEN B-8 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Columbia Gorge Regional Airport (DLS) to Madras Municipal Airport (S33)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA89LA114
- 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
Hughes BENSEN B-8M BENSEN B-8
- Aircraft type
- Hughes BENSEN B-8M
- Category
- Gyroplane
- 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
- N3196
- Operator
- Michael G. Hughes · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Columbia Gorge Regional Airport (DLS), The Dalles, ORTo Madras Municipal Airport (S33), Madras, 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
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Weather condition › High wind
- Weather condition › Mountain wave
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS ATTEMPTING TO SET A WORLD RECORD FOR FLIGHT FROM CANADA TO MEXICO IN THE GYROCOPTER. THE PILOT HAD STOPPED AT THE DALLES, IN THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE, FOR FUEL. AFTER DEPARTING THE DALLES, THE PILOT FLEW SOUTH ALONG A HIGHWAY THAT FOLLOWS A VALLEY EXTENDING FROM THE GORGE TO HIGHER TERRAIN SOUTH OF THE DALLES. THERE ARE STEEP HILLS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE HIGHWAY. THE PILOT WAS FLYING APRX 200 FT AGL MAKING PASSES OVER A GROUND CREW WHO WERE FILMING THE FLIGHT, WHEN THE AIRCRAFT ABRUPTLY FLIPPED INTO AN INVERTED ATTITUDE AND IMPACTED ON A HILLSIDE BY THE HIGHWAY. A MEMBER OF THE GROUND CREW FILMING THE FLIGHT ESTIMATED ON THE TAPE BEFORE THE ACCIDENT THAT THE WINDS WERE 40-50 MPH.
Probable cause
THE PILOTS POOR JUDGEMENT IN ATTEMPTING LOW LEVEL FLIGHT IN A NARROW VALLEY DURING HIGH WIND CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA89LA114
- Event ID
- 20001213X28680
- Case number
- SEA89LA114
- 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: 581f53ac58cec5b4c525adb1143a165c6612f6541aa65c79393a1f15fdc8e566; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:16:35.696Z.