LAX08FA233 · Hughes 369D
BBP Air Hughes 369D · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Carbon County Regional Airport / Buck Davis Field (KPUC) to U77 · Spanish Fork, UT
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX08FA233
- 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
- 3 · 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 369D
- 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
- N400BE
- Operator
- BBP Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Carbon County Regional Airport / Buck Davis Field (KPUC), Price, UTTo U77 · Spanish Fork, UT
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Prior to departure, the helicopter was refueled, a child passenger was replaced with an adult, and additional baggage (exact weight unknown) was added. While fueling, the pilot had a discussion with another pilot stating that the conditions at the airport may make the departure more difficult. The helicopter was observed taking off to the south and then making a right turn towards the northwest. As the helicopter approached the perimeter fence of the airport it was observed to be descending. The accident site was located about .5 nm from the last observed position. The first identified point of impact appeared to be where the left skid tube hit the ground. The ground scar was not in line with the direction of the debris energy path, but was about 270 degrees to the right. The on-scene examination of the accident site indicated that the helicopter first impacted the ground with its left skid, in a more vertical than horizontal vector. The main rotor blades displayed low rotor damage signatures. At the time of the accident the density altitude was computed to be 9,330 feet mean sea level (msl), and the pressure altitude was computed to be 5,827 feet msl. A conservative weight of the helicopter was calculated to be approximately 2,823 pounds. The helicopter’s certified gross weight is 3,000 pounds. The calculated hover performance in ground effect (HIGE) was determined to be at least 63 pounds over the performance capabilities of the helicopter. The calculated hover performance out of ground effect (HOGE) was determined to be at least 223 pounds over the performance capabilities of the helicopter. Witnesses reported the winds at the time of the accident as 10 knots out of the south. Post accident examination of the airframe and engine components found no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight performance planning for the takeoff and the loading that exceeded the lift performance capability of the helicopter.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX08FA233
- Event ID
- 20080731X01133
- Case number
- LAX08FA233
- 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: a0ec0a54f7d2ec90a962b9b49d19c26df0b087c1648dd15cba5fddf5fdefafa5; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:18:28.675Z.