CEN11LA397 · Schweizer 269C
University of North Dakota Schweizer 269C · Accident: loss of control in flight during autorotation
From Grand Forks, ND to Grand Forks, ND
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11LA397
- 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
- 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
- N2077E
- Operator
- University of North Dakota
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Forks, NDTo Grand Forks, ND
- 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
- Autorotation
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The certified flight instructor (CFI) and student were performing a simulated forced landing which was to terminate with power. The student flared about 50 feet above the ground while the CFI monitored the rotor and engine rpm. The student used the collective to reduce the forward speed and rate of descent, and the engine rpm was increased to recover from the autorotation. The CFI reported that the helicopter was slightly tail-low, and it yawed slightly as the power was increased. The CFI took over the controls to level the skids and straighten the heading as the helicopter continued to sink. The helicopter continued to descend making a “light touch down” and run-on landing. The CFI reported that during the level-off and ground contact, they heard a metal-on-metal type of sound. A postaccident inspection of the helicopter revealed two of the main rotor blades had contacted the tailboom.
Probable cause
The student pilot's inadequate recovery from an autorotation and the CFI's delayed remedial action.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11LA397
- Event ID
- 20110616X72608
- Case number
- CEN11LA397
- 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. 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: 8c95696e135f241b4b905f17b6a7f09824d8053eb3f05412aa3065bdd934f5f0; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:18:02.102Z.