ATL02LA159 · Schweizer 300C
Schweizer 300C · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Tuscaloosa National Airport (TCL) to Bill Pugh Field (M22)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL02LA159
- 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
- N269FW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tuscaloosa National Airport (TCL), Tuscaloosa, ALTo Bill Pugh Field (M22), Russellville, AL
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Light condition › Dark night
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During cruise flight, the helicopter lost engine power, and the pilot was unable to restore it. During the forced landing in the darkness, the pilot was unable to see the terrain, and the helicopter hit the ground hard. Examination of the engine revealed two lower screws of the No. 3 valve cover were missing. The attachment bolts of the intake pipes of both the No. 1 and No. 3 cylinder assemblies were found loose. The No. 3 intake pipe was found rotated approximately 180 degrees from the normally installed position. The gaskets normally installed under the intake pipe flanges of the No. 1 and No. 3 intake pipes were missing. The No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4 spark plugs were wet with fuel, and the No. 3 spark plug was dry and displayed tan-colored combustion deposits. A review of maintenance records revealed the engine had operated 38.2 hours since inspection.
Probable cause
The failure of maintenance personnel to perform an adequate inspection of loose intake components, which resulted in a total loss of engine power and subsequent emergency descent, forced landing, and collision with terrain in dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL02LA159
- Event ID
- 20020826X01458
- Case number
- ATL02LA159
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2002-08-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 039ea4872eb5d83637079d3d63f4e04f1e6243b04f93a0b8866c3bbc60124b10; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:35:46.530Z.