SEA82FYM16 · Hughes 369D
Hughes 369D · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From BIRKENFELD, OR to BIRKENFELD, OR
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA82FYM16
- 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
Hughes 369D
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 369
- 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
- N1096L
- Operator
- Transwestern Helicotering
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From BIRKENFELD, ORTo BIRKENFELD, OR
- 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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
- Approach
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, misjudged
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Birkenfeld, OR, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT THE FUEL GAUGE INDICATED 150 LBS OF FUEL REMAINING WHEN HE BEGAN THE FLIGHT. SINCE THE DROP POINT WAS WITHIN 2 TO 3 MINUTES OF THE DEPARTURE POINT, HE ELECTED TO PROCEED WITHOUT REFUELING. WHILE HOVERING AND BEING GUIDED INTO THE DROP POINT, THE LOW FUEL WARNING LIGHT FLICKERED. THE PILOT COMPLETED THE DROP, AND WHILE RETURNING TO THE REFUELING AREA, THE LIGHT FLICKERED 3 MORE TIMES. THE PILOT STATED THAT WHEN HE ARRIVED AT THE REFUELING AREA, THE FUEL GAUGE INDICATED APPROXIMATELY 50 TO 60 LBS OF FUEL REMAINING. SHORTLY AFTER THAT, THE ENGINE LOST POWER WHILE THE HELICOPTER WAS STILL ABOUT 50 TO 60 FT AGL. DURING AN AUTOROTATION, THE HELICOPTER WAS LANDED ON THE HILLSIDE OF A LOGGING AREA WHILE AVOIDING A TRUCK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA82FYM16
- Event ID
- 20020917X04170
- Case number
- SEA82FYM16
- 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: ae2a3718c6c8511e0811cc9dbf948f0b127c3b1781af13f2e114493464d20f42; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:04:05.934Z.