CHI85FA034 · Hughes 500D/369D
Hughes 500D/369D · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From 121 · BROOKSIDE, IN to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI85FA034
- 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 500D/369D
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 500
- 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
- N8069G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 121 · BROOKSIDE, INTo 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, not followed
- Pilot in command › Autorotation, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER LANDED HARD DURING AN AUTOROTATIVE DESCENT WHILE ON A TEST FLT & CHOPPED OFF THE TAIL BOOM. THE PLT STATED HE LOST POWER AT 150 FT AGL & ENTERED AUTOROTATION. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE FUEL QUANTITY FLOAT HAD BECOME INTANGLED WITH THE FUEL PUMP ELECTRICAL LINE. THIS RESULTED IN AN INDICATION OF 150 LBS OF FUEL ON THE FUEL GAUGE WHEN IN FACT THERE WAS NO FUEL IN THE TANKS, LINES OR FILTERS. THERE IS A WARNING IN THE MAINTENANCE MANUAL STATING THE FUEL PUMP ELECTRICAL LINE SHOULD BE TIE WRAPPED TO THE FUEL LINE SO AS NOT TO INTERFERE WITH THE FLOAT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI85FA034
- Event ID
- 20001214X41298
- Case number
- CHI85FA034
- 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: c75263f5bee97506cfaf2bc48c1f8a12979a25d630e1afe89abee614c69e453b; retrieved 2026-09-23T18:53:32.377Z.