MIA04LA022 · Hughes OH-6A
Hughes OH-6A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Space Coast Regional Airport (TIX) to Brooksville–Tampa Bay Regional Airport (BKV)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA04LA022
- 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 OH-6A
- Aircraft type
- Hughes OH-6
- 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
- N369PS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Space Coast Regional Airport (TIX), Titusville, FLTo Brooksville–Tampa Bay Regional Airport (BKV), Brooksville, FL
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
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 stated that as he was approaching to land, and while on the downwind leg, all gages were indicating normal. He said that at an altitude of about 200 to 300 feet AGL, he pushed the collective down to initiate the descent, and lights and engine out warnings commenced. He said he immediately entered an autorotation and landed the helicopter, but during the landing on uneven ground the right skid was lower and dug into the ground, causing the helicopter to nose down. The main rotor blades then contacted the tail boom, severing it, and the helicopter rotated about 90 degrees. The pilot said that he did not receive any low fuel warning signal, and that prior to the accident there had been no failures or malfunctions to the helicopter or any of its systems. Postcrash examination of the helicopter by an FAA inspector and a representative from Rolls Royce/Allison Engine Company revealed about 1 quart of fuel remaining when the fuel bladders were drained through the fuel drain. In addition, when the fuel line to the injectors was removed and drained, about 20 ml of fuel was recovered, and when the fuel filter on the fuel control was removed, inspected and drained, the filter was found to be clean, and about 1/8 bowl of fuel was recovered. The inspector stated that fuel had been exhausted from the helicopter, and added that there had been a fold in the fuel tank bladder that he thought was affecting the fuel float assembly ,and was giving a false fuel quantity reading, as well as affecting the low fuel warning. According to the Rolls Royce/Allison Engine company representative, who examined the helicopter in the presence of the FAA inspector and the pilot, all helicopter systems were found to be functional. The representative said that he did find a small folded crease in the left fuel tank bladder when he opened the panel, gaining entry to the fuel tank, but further stated that the crease was about 1 to 1 1/2-inches in height, and about 1/4 inch across, and it would not have affected the fuel tank capacity. In addition, the engine was shipped to Rolls Royce/Allison Engine Company for a test run which revealed that the engine functioned within parameters, with no anomalies being noted.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to the pilot's failure to adequately plan for the flight which resulted in fuel exhaustion, a forced landing, and damage to the helicopter during the landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA04LA022
- Event ID
- 20031212X02027
- Case number
- MIA04LA022
- 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: dd2a51e62f886ad5f3fb40d3528cd129154d34af8fdd04179b9d809aaf8ed774; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:10:17.983Z.