DEN05TA119 · Hughes 369HS
Hughes 369HS · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) to Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN05TA119
- 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 369HS
- 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
- N500SD
- Operator
- Christopher Holland
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), Albequerque, NMTo Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), Albequerque, NM
- 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
- 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
- Object › Other
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 supporting police officers on the ground, who were attempting to locate a burglary suspect. The pilot and observer were wearing night vision goggles. The pilot established an orbit over the area approximately 400 feet agl. On about the fifth orbit, the crew heard a very loud noise originating from inside the helicopter. The pilot stated that he did not know what happened but knew there was an emergency. The helicopter shook and began to turn right. The pilot immediately lowered the collective and entered autorotation. The pilot flared and the helicopter impacted terrain in the backyard of a residence. Post accident examination revealed a .30-.06 rifle bullet (fired from a high-powered rifle) severed the left anti-torque pedal at the connecting point of the vertical control tube. The bullet then ricocheted into the pilot's leg. An engine inspection revealed no anomalies that would preclude the engine from developing power.
Probable cause
the bullet(s), which severed the helicopter's left tail rotor pedal. Contributing factors were the severed anti-torque pedal and the unsuitable terrain for landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN05TA119
- Event ID
- 20050816X01252
- Case number
- DEN05TA119
- 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: 521ff212f2aa65246a944ee8206355b3bfcdde672eb65cf77b38a51904a6eb8f; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:04:36.485Z.