WPR12FA191 · Hughes 269C UNDESIGNAT
Canyon State Aero Hughes 269C UNDESIGNAT · Accident: system/component malfunction/failure (non-power) en route
From Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT) to Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR12FA191
- 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
Hughes 269C UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 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
- N380TL
- Operator
- Canyon State Aero
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT), Phoenix, AZTo Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT), Phoenix, AZ
- Aircraft age
- About 34 years (built 1978)
- 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
- System/component malfunction/failure (non-power)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
- 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
When the pilot was about 2 minutes from reaching his destination at an altitude of about 500 feet above ground level (agl), he detected a vibration coming from the back of his seat and in the anti-torque pedals. This was followed by a right yaw that was not correctable with pedal input. As the pilot attempted to maintain level flight he heard a "metallic clunking" behind him. He then looked over his shoulder and saw what he thought was the tail rotor slowing down. Able to maintain forward flight by countering the right yaw with left cyclic input, the pilot located a cul-de-sac in a residential neighborhood in which to land. He lowered the collective, rolled off throttle, and made a slight right turn toward the cul-de-sac. During the landing the helicopter impacted the roof of a house, then a brick wall that separated the house from the adjoining residence. The helicopter came to rest in the backyard of the adjacent home. Witnesses reported that the helicopter didn't sound right, that the engine was sputtering, and that its speed was increasing and decreasing. It was observed rocking and teetering, and then nose-dived toward the ground. After the helicopter crash landed, the engine continued to run and the tail rotor continued to spin. A post-accident investigation revealed that the main transmission pinion had failed from fatigue. Subsequent to the fracture of the main transmission pinion, the tail rotor drive shaft would have been free to move, resulting in the loss of the tail rotor drive. Maintenance records revealed that the main transmission pinion was part of a periodic inspection check, which was completed the day prior to the accident.
Probable cause
A loss of tail rotor drive due to a fatigue failure of the main transmission pinion, which resulted in a loss of directional control during cruise flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR12FA191
- Event ID
- 20120502X70035
- Case number
- WPR12FA191
- 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: 35884ec16af246a032b09bfd03b8468709bd4a8970b8224a9bcfb9fb17499905; retrieved 2026-09-15T17:58:03.059Z.