ANC82DA075 · Enstrom F-28F
Enstrom F-28F · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From NEAR SUTTON, AK to NEAR SUTTON, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC82DA075
- 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 F-28F
- Aircraft type
- Enstrom F-28
- 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
- N5698E
- Operator
- Kean & Associates
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From NEAR SUTTON, AKTo NEAR SUTTON, AK
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 assembly, valve, intake › Leak
- Pilot in command › Autorotation, performed
- Powerplant controls › Improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD APPROACHED AND LANDED ON A BLUFF TO DISCHARGE HIS TWO PASSENGERS. HOWEVER, BEFORE DISCHARGING THE PASSENGERS, HE DECIDED TO TAKEOFF AND FIND A BETTER LANDING AREA. WHEN THE HELICOPTER WAS ABOUT 10 TO 20 FT FROM THE TAKEOFF POINT, BUT APPROXIMATELY 200 FT AGL, THERE WAS A DECREASE IN RPM. INITIALLY, THE PILOT THOUGHT HE WAS SETTLING WITH POWER. HE LOWERED THE NOSE AND COLLECTIVE, BUT WAS UNABLE TO REGAIN THE RPM, BUT HE FELT THE HELICOPTER YAW TO THE LEFT. HE FELT MAST-BUMPING AND REALIZED HE MUST BE CROSS-CONTROLLING WITH TOO MUCH RIGHT PEDAL AND LEFT CYCLIC. HE THEN ENTERED AN AUTOROTATION. THE HELICOPTER COLLIDED WITH TREES ON THE SIDE OF THE BLUFF AND ROLLED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL. AN EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE NO-2 CYLINDER COMPRESSION WAS LOW. THE NO-2 INTAKE VALVE HAD BECOME TULIPED AND WAS LEAKING. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT IT HAD BEEN POUNDING. ALSO, THERE WAS INDICATIONS OF HIGH ENGINE RPM AND TEMPERATURE. THE HELICOPTER HAD BEEN FLOWN 38 HRS SINCE THE LAST INSPECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC82DA075
- Event ID
- 20020917X02665
- Case number
- ANC82DA075
- 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: 0206610d53bca8ac95a7472aafe54d21cedd5385c36fbc56dc8d71ac988268a2; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:55:59.079Z.