DEN03LA115 · Schweizer 269C
Schweizer 269C · Accident: loss of control in flight while taxiing
From Skypark Airport (BTF) to Skypark Airport (BTF)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN03LA115
- 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 269C
- 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
- N3623U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skypark Airport (BTF), Bountiful, UTTo Skypark Airport (BTF), Bountiful, UT
- 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
- Taxi · aerial
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
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 was hover taxiing from the west side of the airport to his hangar on the east side. He said he had lifted the helicopter "up to about a three-foot hover," when the cyclic started to rotate "in about a six to eight inch circle" in his hand. The pilot reported he heard a "low pitch or frequency oscillation." The pilot said, "The helicopter started a strong uncontrollable roll to the left. I tried to push the cyclic to the right but found no change in stopping the roll or direction of movement." The pilot said that he knew there were airplanes and people in the direction the helicopter was heading. The pilot said he decided to put the helicopter down on its side to stop any further movement. A witness saw the helicopter lift off the ramp to approximately 3 to 5 feet. The tail rotor then struck the ramp and the helicopter impacted on its left side. An examination of the helicopter showed substantial damage to the main rotor blades, tail rotor, skids, and cockpit area. An examination of the helicopter's systems revealed no anomalies. The wind conditions in the area, approximately 30 minutes prior to the accident were 350 degrees at 11 knots with gusts to 16 knots. According to the mechanic who had performed the previous annual inspection on the helicopter, when in hover, the helicopter would experience a small amount of stick swirl. The mechanic said that "if you work it, it [the swirl] will go away."
Probable cause
the pilot not maintaining aircraft control during the aerial taxi. Factors contributing to the accident were the oscillating cyclic, the pilot's diverted attention, and the gusting crosswind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN03LA115
- Event ID
- 20030701X00989
- Case number
- DEN03LA115
- 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: c9ae23a5c7c7ff54d2151d984717297375a7e231b031bdb80042dc15bac1b6cc; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:04:56.430Z.