ATL86LA141 · Hughes 269A
Hughes 269A · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Daniels, WV to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86LA141
- 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 269A
- 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
- N8889F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daniels, WVTo 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
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Fuel starvation; 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT STATED THAT HE NOTED A 'LARGE VIBRATION' AFTER HE HAD TAKEN OFF. HE SUSPECTED A PSBL BIRD STRIKE OR BEARING FAILURE, & SUBSEQUENTLY, THE HELICOPTER CRASHED INTO TREES. ACCORDING TO THE PLT, THE ENG DID NOT FAIL; HOWEVER, WITNESSES SAW THE HELICOPTER FLYING AT LOW ALT BFR IT CRASHED & THEY THOUGHT THE ENG WAS LOSING POWER. APRX 1-1/2 QTS OF FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL TANK. NO EVIDENCE OF A FUEL LEAK OR SPILL WAS FOUND. A NUMBER OF MAINTENANCE DISCREPANCIESWERE NOTED, BUT NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS VERIFIED. A CHECK OF THE PLT'S BLOOD SHOWED AN ALCOHOL LVL OF 0.14%.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86LA141
- Event ID
- 20001213X33475
- Case number
- ATL86LA141
- 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 1986-05-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2e591940b304c2aad59587bfe644ed20c0d1cac91c75274b359e714613038507; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:58:03.241Z.