ERA10CA010 · Schweizer 269C-1
Schweizer 269C-1 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Auburn Lewiston Municipal Airport (KLEW) to Auburn Lewiston Municipal Airport (KLEW)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA10CA010
- 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
- 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
- N1835E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Auburn Lewiston Municipal Airport (KLEW), Lewiston, METo Auburn Lewiston Municipal Airport (KLEW), Lewiston, ME
- 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
- Maneuvering · hover
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of a helicopter was conducting a non-revenue sightseeing flight for one passenger. After lifting off, the pilot stated that he was hovering eastbound with the winds out of the west. A METAR taken on the airport approximately 5 minutes before the accident indicated the wind was from 340 degrees at 11 knots with gusts to 16 knots. The pilot further stated that the helicopter’s nose made a sudden yaw to the right, which could not be corrected with reduction of throttle and full left pedal application. The helicopter touched down after a 270 degree turn, came to rest upright, with substantial damage to the main rotor blades, skids and tailboom. According to a Federal Aviation Administration Advisory Circular (AC) 90-95 titled "Unanticipated Right Yaw in Helicopters", operation of a helicopter with a tailwind as reported by the pilot or with a left quartering tailwind as determined by the METAR and the pilot's statement can result in unanticipated right yaw or loss of tail rotor effectiveness (LTE).
Probable cause
The loss of tail rotor effectiveness (LTE) resulting from hovering the helicopter in a tailwind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA10CA010
- Event ID
- 20091008X12947
- Case number
- ERA10CA010
- 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: 75bc3569fffb59d3e3617eb3e5773b8e1b43c18f81fa3f546f6a1e0c14d7a54f; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:23:39.949Z.