ATL86LA251 · Hughes 369HS/H-500 369HS/H-50
Burgundy Farms Hughes 369HS/H-500 369HS/H-50 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86LA251
- 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 369HS/H-500 369HS/H-50
- 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
- N9181F
- Operator
- Burgundy Farms
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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 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
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT LIFTED OFF THE TOP OF THE SUPPORT TRUCK AND STARTED A TAKEOFF WITH A PARTIAL LOAD OF CHEMICALS TO BE APPLIED TO A LOGGED OVER FOREST AREA. ABOUT 10-15 FEET AFTER LIFT OFF THE PLT DETECTED A LOSS OF ROTOR RPM. HE WAS AT THE EDGE OF A RAVINE WITH STEEP SIDES AND HAD NO LANDING AREA AVAILABLE. HE DESCENDED THE SIDE OF THE RAVINE AND PERFORMED A MODIFIED AUTOROTATION INTO THE TOPS OF THE TREES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RAVINE. THE GROUND SUPPORT MAN REPORTED SEEING A PUFF OF SMOKE AT ABOUT THE TIME THE PLT REPORTED THE POWER LOSS. THE ACFT WAS RECOVERED AND EXAMINED. NO MALFUNCTIONS WERE DISCOVERED WHICH PREVENTED THE ENG FROM RUNNING. THE ENG WAS REMOVED AND SHIPPED TO THE FACTORY WHERE IT WAS RUN IN A TEST CELL. IT PERFORMEDWELL. A RECORDS CHECK REVEALED THAT HE ENG WAS SHIPPED TO BELL HELICOPTER AS A NEW 'O' TIME ENGINE. IT WAS INSTALLED IN THE HUGHES APPROXIMATELY 19 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE INSTALLATION WAS INSPECTED AND APPROVED BY THE FAA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86LA251
- Event ID
- 20001213X34710
- Case number
- ATL86LA251
- 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 1986-09-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b6415d820c8a0bab276509e03855d6d848fd9f6bdf44b5f44c388d14d7e25be0; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:01:24.138Z.