NYC08WA262 · Schweizer 269C
Olympic Aviation Schweizer 269C · Accident
From Gag Island Airport (GAV) to Gag Island Airport (GAV)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08WA262
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- 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
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
- SX-HNB
- Operator
- Olympic Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gag Island Airport (GAV), AthensTo Gag Island Airport (GAV)
- 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
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On April 22, 2008, about 1500 local time, a Schweizer 269C helicopter, SX-HNB, was substantially damaged during a forced landing near Athens, Greece. The 2 flight crew members sustained minor injuries. Meteorological conditions at the time of the local flight included winds from the southeast at 16 knots. The temperature was 24 degrees Celsius, and the dew point was 14 degrees Celsius.
According to information released by the Greek government, the helicopter was maneuvering when the pilot lowered the collective control and experienced a corresponding decrease in engine and rotor rpm. Attempts to recover the rpm with throttle and collective inputs were unsuccessful. The helicopter experienced a hard landing and was destroyed in a post crash fire.
The accident occurred in the vicinity of 37 degrees, 55 minutes north latitude, 23 degrees, 50 minutes east longitude.
This investigation is under the jurisdiction of the Government of Greece. Any further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
Ministry of Transport and Communication Hellenic Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board Ex. American Base Building 221, Helliniko GR 167 01, Athens, Greece
Tel: 30 210 99 73 024 Fax: 30 210 99 73 184
This report is for informational purposes and contains only information released by the Government of Greece.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC08WA262
- Event ID
- 20081003X17823
- Case number
- NYC08WA262
- 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: 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: 7d1c3114546dcf6a986ecccf107c1c9e5115a243345af6b90321f9975807679b; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:18:28.419Z.