NYC01LA206 · Schweizer 300C
Highland Helicopter Services Schweizer 300C · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR) to Michael Airfield (1G6)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC01LA206
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Schweizer 300C
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer 300
- 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
- N1281R
- Operator
- Highland Helicopter Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR), Syracuse, NYTo Michael Airfield (1G6), Cicero, NY
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Copilot/second pilot › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
With the pilot at the controls, receiving instruction, an approach to the runway was made. As the helicopter neared the runway, it was flared and leveled about 3 feet above the ground, with no forward airspeed. The CFI observed that the rotor and engine rpm began to decrease, and helicopter was turning to the left. He then took the controls and attempted to correct the situation; however, the helicopter rotated 360 degrees, and the left landing skid struck the ground. The helicopter rolled over onto its left side and came to rest. When the helicopter and its powerplant were examined after the accident, no pre-impact failures were noted. The right landing skid was separated from the struts, and its fasteners were sheared. Dirt was observed packed into the heal of the skid. The middle and aft skid shoes were deformed and twisted clockwise on the skid. The damage was consistent of skid to ground contact while moving in a right lateral direction with significant impact force.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control while hovering, and the CFI's delayed remedial action.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC01LA206
- Event ID
- 20010830X01827
- Case number
- NYC01LA206
- 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: 72c76176f57bf12114f14ff22cd3787adbc2dc69384894c3b3a58038c4aa6af6; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:52:37.932Z.