LAX06LA123 · Schweizer 269C-1
Group 3 Aviation Schweizer 269C-1 · Accident: in flight collision with object
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Van Nuys Airport (VNY)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06LA123
- 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
- 1 · 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
- N61466
- Operator
- Group 3 Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, 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
- Unknown
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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(cfi) › Altitude/clearance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The certified flight instructor (CFI) was providing primary flight training to his pre-solo student. After departing from the Van Nuys Airport, the CFI proceeded to the Santa Clara River practice area. The helicopter impacted power lines during an undetermined phase of flight over the dry river bed. The power lines had been suspended from poles located north and south of the river bed. Following impact, the helicopter descended about 40 feet until impacting the ground on its right side. The student, who was located in the right seat, was fatally injured. The subsequent examination of the helicopter's airframe and engine assembly did not reveal evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunction. Wire mark striations were noted on a main rotor blade. Following the accident the operator (flight school) issued instructions to its employees regarding the location where off airport flight training was authorized. The accident site area was excluded from the authorized training area.
Probable cause
The certified flight instructor's failure to maintain an adequate clearance from objects.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06LA123
- Event ID
- 20060306X00268
- Case number
- LAX06LA123
- 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: c844af5ed030cad2e2d4cdeab8bc758de9e54d6e16a85c0100f52fcbd26e8a87; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:30:53.012Z.