LAX04CA233 · Schweizer 269C-1
Helicopter Adventures Schweizer 269C-1 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Buchanan Field (CCR) to Concord, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04CA233
- 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-1
- 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
- N9421K
- Operator
- Helicopter Adventures
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Buchanan Field (CCR), Concord, CATo Concord, CA
- 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 · hover in ground effect
- 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
- Dual student › Cyclic, improper use of
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, delayed
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter collided with terrain and rolled over while hovering above flat terrain. The student pilot was practicing hover techniques by utilizing the controls individually. While the student was manipulating the cyclic, the certified flight instructor (CFI) noticed that the friction setting on the collective had been engaged. As the CFI was focusing on the friction setting for the collective, the student made a large forward cyclic input. The helicopter responded in an extreme nose down position and the CFI attempted to counteract the student's abrupt maneuver. The helicopter impacted terrain and rolled over the nose, coming to rest on the right side. The CFI reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter.
Probable cause
the student's improper use of the cyclic control, the flight instructor's inadequate supervision, and his delayed remedial action. A factor in the accident was the CFI's diverted attention.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04CA233
- Event ID
- 20040622X00851
- Case number
- LAX04CA233
- 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: 4e7eabcb2cadfbac59dbc7dc8346b646251d8962c3981c18cbc51a0ad2d42ee7; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:23:03.969Z.