DFW05CA168 · Hughes 269C
Brazos Helicopters Hughes 269C · Accident: hard landing
From Bruceville, TX to Bruceville, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW05CA168
- 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
- N7487F
- Operator
- Brazos Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bruceville, TXTo Bruceville, TX
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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 › Flare, 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 724-hour flight instructor reported that the student pilot initiated a planned power-recovery 180-degree autorotation to a plowed field. As the student attempted to recover with power, approximately 20-50 feet above ground level, the instructor noticed "that the engine rpm needle was not coming up to meet the rotor rpm needle." The instructor immediately attempted to "roll maximum throttle on," but realized the throttle would not move, and took control of the helicopter. The student told the instructor that the throttle was stuck. However, the instructor stated the throttle seemed "stuck because it was all the way open." Subsequently, the helicopter contacted the ground and the right skid "dug into the ground," as the helicopter rolled over and came to rest on its right side. The instructor stated that the engine was not running and the throttle was wide open when he took the controls. No mechanical anomolies were noted with the engine or the airframe. The reason for the loss of engine power was undetermined.
Probable cause
The flight instructor's improper flare during autorotation, which resulted in a hard landing. Contributing factor was, the lack of suitable terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW05CA168
- Event ID
- 20050720X01067
- Case number
- DFW05CA168
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2005-06-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2ed783d853ce2dc8d84b4b30ecebd507819805ad400fda6eb62c7e5ee3d7b0b6; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:44:49.048Z.