DEN05TA113 · Hughes 369FF
USDA Forest Service Hughes 369FF · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Remote Area, CO to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN05TA113
- 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 369FF
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 369
- 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
- N530TJ
- Operator
- USDA Forest Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Remote Area, COTo not recorded
- 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 out of 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Loss of tail rotor effectiveness, encountered
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed
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 was being used to support United States Forest Service (USFS) firefighting operations in the area and was attempting to deliver supplies via external load. Prior to the approach, the pilot overflew the intended landing location and was informed that the winds were from the west approximately 7 knots. The pilot performed a hover check approximately 1/2 mile east of the intended landing zone (LZ) over a valley. The pilot moved the helicopter west to the LZ at a speed just above effective translational lift and came to a hover with the load approximately 30-40 feet over the landing spot. The pilot checked the engine and operating instruments and all systems indicated normal. The pilot began looking down and outside the helicopter when he felt a yaw to the right. The pilot noticed that he was "depressing the left [pedal] more as I pushed on the left to stop a right turn." The helicopter then made an "uncommanded turn to the right and began spinning right." The helicopter made two to three rotations to the right; the pilot jettisoned the cargo portion of the long line and lowered the collective. The pilot attempted to regain control of the descent by adding power/pitch to the main rotor; however, the aircraft immediately started spinning again. The pilot lowered the collective and began a glide into the trees. Subsequently, the helicopter impacted trees and terrain and came to rest on its left side. Examination of the aircraft revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Prior to the flight, the pilot incorrectly computed the performance and load calculations for the operation. The pilot's incorrect performance and load calculations were also not properly verified by the USFS helicopter manager. In addition, the USFS personnel miscalculated the weight of the external load, which was unknown to the pilot. A review of the rotorcraft flight manual revealed the maximum gross weight limitation was exceeded given the environmental conditions at the time of the accident. The calculated density altitude was 11,465 feet.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control due to delayed remedial action during the encounter with the loss of tail rotor effectiveness. Contributing factors were the pilot's inadequate preflight performance planning, and the inadequate supervision by the US Forest Service personnel.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN05TA113
- Event ID
- 20050727X01105
- Case number
- DEN05TA113
- 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: f9ddfe9303973203ba2bf741f7e1a55be7b9e5920584ee3134bd1357d508fcb4; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:57:12.078Z.