ATL87FA003 · McDonnell Douglas 369E
McDonnell Douglas 369E · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87FA003
- 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
McDonnell Douglas 369E
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas 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
- N52705
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), Columbus, OHTo 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
- 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, poor
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, replacement, improper
- Fuel system, fuel control › Disabled
- Pneumatic system › Disconnected
- Pneumatic system › Loose
- Pneumatic system › Undertorqued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER HAD BEEN CONDUCTING A SERIES OF DEMO FLTS DURING THE DAY & WAS ON THE LAST SCHEDULED FLT OF THE DAY. TO DROP OFF THE LOCAL PLT WHO HAD REQUESTED THE DEMO FLTS, WHEN THE LOSS OF POWER OCCURRED. THEY HAD MADE A TAKE OFF OVER THE TAXIWAY & TURNED TO THE NORTH AS DIRECTED BY THE TWR. THEY WERE OVER A HOUSING AREA NORTH OF THE ARPT WHEN THE ENG OUT AND LOW ROTOR WARNING SYSTEM SOUNDED. THE LOCAL PLT, WHO HAD MADE THE TAKE OFF & WAS AT THE CONTROLS, TOLD THE DEMO PLT THAT HE WAS TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE ACFT. HE STATED THAT THE START BUTTON WAS ON THE LEFT SET OF CONTROLS. THE DEMO PLT WAS ABLE TO CLEAR THE HOUSING AREA BUT THE ACFT HIT VERY HARD IN THE MEDIAN OF A DIVIDED HIGHWAY. THE ACFT CROSSED THE SOUTH LANES AND STOPPED IN THE GRASS AT THE EDGE OF THE ROAD. IT WAS DESTROYED BY FIRE. EXAMINATION REVEALED A LOOSE 'B' NUT ON THE P/C LINE TO THE FUEL CONTROL UNIT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87FA003
- Event ID
- 20001213X34903
- Case number
- ATL87FA003
- 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: 787c83d1a91235784f2de6534776748dcc9bb0e4fe0ca1d4b4948f4ee74544ce; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:50:27.185Z.