LAX08LA213 · Schweizer 269 C-1
Silicon Valley Helicopters Schweizer 269 C-1 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) en route
From Byron Airport (C83) to Reid-Hillview Airport of Santa Clara County (RHV)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX08LA213
- 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
- 2 · 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 269 C-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
- N2011A
- Operator
- Silicon Valley Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Byron Airport (C83), Byron, CATo Reid-Hillview Airport of Santa Clara County (RHV), San Jose, 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
- En route · cruise
- Defining eventThe 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
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) and student pilot were on the return portion of a night cross-country flight to the airport where the helicopter was based. After refueling, the helicopter departed and flew a path over an interstate highway. Radar data showed the flight continued along the interstate for 3 miles varying between altitudes of 300 to 700 feet mean sea level toward the accident site. The last recorded altitudes of the helicopter were about 250 feet above the interstate. The tops of the surrounding hills were about 150 feet above the interstate, with transmission towers that extended an additional 120 feet above the hills. Witnesses observed the helicopter maneuvering low along the interstate under a heavy fog layer that was about 200 feet above ground level until it collided with the power lines. The CFI had most likely flown a similar flight path in night conditions about 3 months prior to the accident. The accident site was located in a small canyon where the power lines crossed the interstate at a near 45-degree angle, with colored balls on the highest wires. These were the only wires that cross over the interstate in the stretch of the canyon. The two transmission towers on either side of the interstate were not lit or marked. Examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The relevant Terminal Area Chart pictorially depicted a tower and the power lines, showing them crossing the interstate in the area of the accident site.
Probable cause
The pilots' failure to maintain adequate clearance from transmission wires during cruise flight. Contributing to the accident were the dark night and low fog.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX08LA213
- Event ID
- 20080710X01015
- Case number
- LAX08LA213
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: bfe97599cb3734331b52a2ae22b108160523c8ae7f90cd9cfc6128bad3e02679; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:14:44.382Z.