IAD05LA031 · Enstrom 280C
Enstrom 280C · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR) to Galloo Island, NY (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05LA031
- 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
Enstrom 280C
- Aircraft type
- Enstrom 280
- 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
- N51739
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR), Syracuse, NYTo Galloo Island, NY (no airport)
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While conducting aerial photography operations, at an altitude about 80 feet agl and at an estimated groundspeed of 20 knots, the helicopter's engine experienced a partial loss of power. The pilot then performed the emergency checklist and configured the helicopter for an autorotation. As the helicopter descended the pilot reported that the rotor and the engine would not "separate," and the rotor rpm continued to decrease. The helicopter impacted the ground hard, incurring damage to a main rotor blade and the tail boom. The engine was test run at idle rpm following the accident, and found to operate normally. Subsequent disassembly and examination of the engine and the clutch revealed no anomalies. A review of the height velocity diagram for the helicopter showed that given the conditions at the time of the accident, the helicopter was being operated outside of the safe operating area.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. A factor was the pilot's improper decision to operate the helicopter outside the height velocity curve.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05LA031
- Event ID
- 20050119X00072
- Case number
- IAD05LA031
- 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: 60cf1033b096bb6dcbf1b81530c2760042edbffec364c9435a9d9a77bce6c037; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:31:00.141Z.