LAX04LA331 · Schweizer 269C-1
Group 3 Aviation Schweizer 269C-1 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while standing
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04LA331
- 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
- N61413
- Operator
- Group 3 Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR), Burbank, 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
- Landing gear, main gear shock absorbing strut › Improperly serviced
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 encountered ground resonance after landing and sustained substantial damage in the vibratory event. The pilot-undergoing-instruction (PUI) was taking refresher training in the helicopter. The approach was normal; however, the touchdown was harder than normal. With the helicopter on the ground, the certified flight instructor (CFI) began discussing the touchdown with the PUI and the helicopter began to vibrate. The CFI did not have time to react prior to the helicopter self-destructing. Post-accident examination of the components found that in the forward landing gear dampers the pistons were fully extended and they contained fluid in excess of the levels specified in the maintenance instructions. Dampers in this condition will not compress or attenuate airframe motion and vibrations or prevent ground resonance. The last inspection on the helicopter was a 100-hour that was completed 4.5 hours prior to the accident flight.
Probable cause
the failure of maintenance personnel to correctly service the forward landing gear strut dampers in accordance with the manufacturer's maintenance instructions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04LA331
- Event ID
- 20041005X01575
- Case number
- LAX04LA331
- 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: 7fe31015d066af3632af054fb1543896a99c65778b05afb3e0e50491cc41af21; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:41:48.239Z.