LAX87FA112 · Hughes 369D
Hughes 369D · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87FA112
- 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 369D
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 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
- N1102U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, improper
- Rotor system, main rotor blade › Separation
- Rotor system, main rotor hub › Corroded
- Rotor system, main rotor hub › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG TKOF CLB, A LOUD NOISE OCCURRED AS 1 OF 5 MAIN ROTORS (MRB'S) & THE TAIL BOOM SEPD FM THE HELICOPTER (HEL). THE HEL THEN CRASHED & HIT A SUBMERGED REEF APRX 200' FM THE HELIPORT. AN EXAM OF THE FAILED MRB SHOWED ITS RETENTION STRAP ASSY(RSA), PN 369D21210-501, FAILED FM FATIGUE IN AN AREA OF CORROSION; 11 OF THE MRB'S 16 STRAP LAMINATES HAD PREEXISTING CRACKS. CORROSION WAS FND ON 78 OF 80 LAMINATES. THE MAINT HNDBK REQD THE RSA'S BE INSPECTED AT 25, 100 & 600 HR INTER- VALS. SVC INFO NOTICE (SIN) DN-77.1 RDMDD A 300 HR INSPN IF ANY CRACK OR LAMINATE FAILURE WAS FND DRG A 100 HR INSPN. AD'S 77-15-09R1 & 81-10-08 REQD INSPN W/I (BUT NOT OUTBRD OF) THE PITCH HOUSING. DRG 100 HR/AD INSPNS AFTER 1768 & 1839 HRS OF OPN, UP TO 3 CRACKS WERE FND IN LAMINATE LEGS, BUT THEIR LCTNS WERE NOT DOCUMENTED FOR LTR INSPN. HOWEVER, DRG 2 SUBSEQUENT 100 HR INSPNS BY ANOTHER MECH, NO CRACKED LAMINATES WERE NOTED. THE HEL HAD 2135 HRS OF OPN WHEN THE ACDNT OCCURRED. SVC INFO LTR DL-54 RCMDD A TRI-FLOW WASH PROC AFTER THE LAST FLT OF EACH DAY WHEN OPNG IN A MARINE ENVIRONMENT
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87FA112
- Event ID
- 20001213X30252
- Case number
- LAX87FA112
- 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 1987-02-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: fbbc6443e2a8f8b87ea22a32eb943d28de5ab829caf36660f66c0e341d53f031; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:13:57.972Z.