FTW02LA179 · Schweizer 269D
Schweizer 269D · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Hardeman Ranch Heliport (TE92) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02LA179
- 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 269D
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer 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
- N333UC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hardeman Ranch Heliport (TE92), Crawford, TXTo 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
- Initial climb
- 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 engine power
- 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 instruments, egt/tot gage › Exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot made a forced landing following a loss of engine power after takeoff. The 4,950-hour pilot reported that the aircraft was in a climb at 75 feet AGL, an airspeed of 40-50 knots, and approximately 200 feet south of the takeoff point, when the engine lost power. The pilot executed an autorotation straight ahead and landed. Examination of the engine revealed no damage in the gearbox, but significant thermal distress to several turbine components. The compressor rotated freely and the N1 and N2 sides of the accessory gearbox rotated freely. The compressor and accessory gearbox were not opened. The first stage nozzle shield appeared normal. The first stage nozzle exhibited heat distress on vanes. The first stage turbine wheel exhibited heat distress to all blades; approximately 40-50 percent of the airfoil burned away. The second stage turbine wheel exhibited heat distress to approximately 1/3 of the blades; approximately 30 percent of the airfoil burned away. The third and fourth stage turbine wheels and nozzles appeared normal. The turbine to compressor coupling exhibited rotational marks on the compressor end. The fuel control unit and power turbine governor were tested, and no anomalies were noted.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power as a result of the pilot's exceedence of the engine's temperature limits, resulting in the melting of blades on the first and second stage turbine wheels. A contributing factor was the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02LA179
- Event ID
- 20020613X00879
- Case number
- FTW02LA179
- 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, coordinates. 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: a312d2bf802798a26ace27bce7921d9070f4b4036ffb030af7d5910d9acf5e54; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:51:38.608Z.