CHI86LA236 · Hughes 269B
Dagnon Aviation Hughes 269B · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Minneapolis, MN to Chippewa Falls, WI
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI86LA236
- 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 269B
- 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
- N9427F
- Operator
- Dagnon Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Minneapolis, MNTo Chippewa Falls, WI
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Engine assembly, crankcase › Cracked
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER PICKING UP HIS PASSENGER AT WILLIAMS PIPELINE, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, THE PLT FLEW EASTWARD ALONG INTERSTATE 90 ENROUTE TO A PIPELINE NEAR WAUSAU, WISCONSIN. WHILE FLYING AT APPROXIMATELLY 400 FEET, THE PLT AND PASSENGER STATED THAT THE ENGINE STARTED TO MAKE A GRINDING OR KNOCKING NOISE AND THAT THERE WAS AN ALMOST INSTANTANEOUS LOSS OF POWER. THE PLT THEN DROPPED THE COLLECTIVE AND TURNED APPROXIMATELY 40 DEGREES TO THE SANDY, UPWARD SLOPING GROUND. THE NOSE OF THE AIRCRAFT REMAINED LOW AND THE TAILBOOM RAISED. THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES THEN STRUCK THE TAILBOOM. WRECKAGE EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE NUMBER FOUR PISTON ROD PROTRUDED THROUGH THE ENGINE CASE, WHICH WAS CRACKED FROM THE HOLE TO THE NUMBER FOUR CYLINDER BASE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI86LA236
- Event ID
- 20001213X34756
- Case number
- CHI86LA236
- 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: 611c4ae0db05c53db667670b7dcedd800ff1d7b58f04cc8435f4c15f30ee2d16; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:57:11.986Z.