SEA03LA158 · Hughes 269C
Silverhawk Aviation Hughes 269C · Accident: abrupt maneuver while maneuvering
From Caldwell Executive Airport (EUL) to Melba, ID
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03LA158
- 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
Hughes 269C
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 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
- N171FF
- Operator
- Silverhawk Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Caldwell Executive Airport (EUL), Caldwell, IDTo Melba, ID
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Abrupt maneuver
- 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
As the pilot was approaching the north end of the field from the south, about 2 feet above the corn stalks at 30 knots, he began a climbing right pedal turn. Approximately 30 to 40 degrees through the turn, the pilot misjudged his distance from wires that bordered the field. The pilot stopped the pedal turn and applied right forward cyclic. As the helicopter began to sink the pilot applied forward cyclic and additional throttle to gain airspeed and to minimize the descent. The pilot then applied aft cyclic and collective to stop the descent, but the helicopter's right skid impacted the corn causing it to veer right before impacting the ground and coming to rest on its left side.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain control of the helicopter due to his failure to maintain rotor rpm. Factors contributing to the accident were the corn crop, and the pilot's abrupt maneuver to avoid obstacles.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03LA158
- Event ID
- 20030731X01246
- Case number
- SEA03LA158
- 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: 6b4e56a79da050c59012b5b25dcb620c20d4daede4b59f3c83765757c034c5cd; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:52:46.235Z.