LAX83FA266 · Enstrom F28C
Enstrom F28C · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From an unrecorded airport to Las Vegas Municipal Airport (LVS)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FA266
- 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
Enstrom F28C
- Aircraft type
- Enstrom F28
- 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
- N51684
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Las Vegas Municipal Airport (LVS), Las Vegas, NM
- 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 · climb to 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 control in flight
- 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
- Pilot in command › Adequate rotor RPM, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Lack of total experience in type of aircraft
- Pilot in command › Rotorcraft flight controls, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD TAKEN OFF, WENT INTO A NORMAL HOVER, THEN TRAVELED ABOUT 200 FEET FOR A PATTERN CLIMB-OUT WHEN HE RADIOED THE TOWER THAT THE ACFT DID NOT FEEL RIGHT. THE ACFT STARTED TO FISHTAIL. THE PILOT TRIED TO AUTOROTATE BUT COULD NOT STOP THE RATE OF DESCENT. THE PILOT HAD ONLY ONE HOUR IN THIS MODEL. THE COMPANY WHO HAD JUST INSPECTED THE ACFT WANTED THE PILOT TO TAKE MORE DUAL INSTRUCTION BEFORE THIS FLIGHT, BUT THE PILOT WAS IN A HURRY AND DECLINED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FA266
- Event ID
- 20001214X43371
- Case number
- LAX83FA266
- 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: dfe309a328dc608be7846f6cf58fbe3dd02fcc8d26d5e021689e22682f348b19; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:55:29.224Z.