CHI06TA148 · Schweizer 269C
Schweizer 269C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
From Griffith-Merrillville Airport (05C) to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's flight rules. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06TA148
- 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
- Government
- 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
- 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
- N54LC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Griffith-Merrillville Airport (05C), Griffith, INTo 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
- Public Aircraft Narrative disagrees
- 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
- Other
- 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
- Total 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
- Pilot in command › Autorotation, 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 helicopter sustained substantial damage when it impacted terrain following a practice autorotation and subsequent loss of engine power. The helicopter was operating as a public-use instructional flight. The pilot stated, in part, "Immediately upon reducing the throttle and lowering the collective, the engine of the helicopter stopped. This was confirmed by the indication of the "split" needles and engine RPM indicating zero RPM. This was further confirmed by the manifold pressure gauge which was rising to atmospheric pressure. This practice autorotation had turned into a real total loss of engine power autorotation to touchdown. ... [After touchdown,] the main rotor blade flex downward and came in contact with the tail boom section causing the tail rotor to separate." Wind in the area was 220 degrees at 13 knots gusting to 19 knots. An examination of the wreckage revealed no preimpact anomalies. The engine was operational during a subsequent test run.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper autorotation following an actual loss of engine power during a practice autorotation, which resulted in a hard landing. A factor associated with the accident was the loss of engine power at the beginning of the practice autorotation for an undetermined reason.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06TA148
- Event ID
- 20060608X00719
- Case number
- CHI06TA148
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 4b8dfacf60497549d6dde4155982a0b46ea3cacbc7178e04be3d904e6fc6b501; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:45:16.055Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operation. The narrative states "The helicopter was operating as a public-use instructional flight"; the flight was a public aircraft operation, not Part 91 general aviation.