CEN16FA315 · Hughes 269C
Hughes 269C · Accident: loss of control in flight during autorotation
From Howe, TX to Howe, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN16FA315
- 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
- 1 · 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
- 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
- N9277R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Howe, TXTo Howe, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 37 years (built 1979)
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor and student pilot were flying the helicopter near dusk about 1,100 ft above ground level (agl) when the instructor initiated a practice autorotation, by reducing the throttle to idle. The engine subsequently experienced a total loss of power; the instructor attempted to restart the engine, but, was unsuccessful. The student provided conflicting statements regarding who was controlling the helicopter during the autorotation and landing, but stated that he started the landing flare about 25 ft agl. He further stated that he did not think that the helicopter's descent had been sufficiently slowed before the helicopter impacted the ground. Upon impact, the tail boom partially separated and the helicopter rolled over, coming to rest on its right side.
Postaccident examination of the helicopter and engine did not reveal any mechanical malfunctions or anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Impact damage precluded any functional testing of the engine and its components, and the reason for the reported loss of engine power could not be determined.
The pilot's flight manual stated that an engine restart should not be attempted below 2,000 ft agl, and that, below that altitude, the pilot should conduct a normal autorotation to landing. The manual also stated that the fuel boost pump should be activated before a practice autorotation. The fuel boost pump switch was found in the OFF position. The manual also states that rapid throttle reductions to full idle during flight shall not be conducted at any altitude to minimize the possibility of engine stoppage.
Probable cause
The improper execution of an autorotation following the loss of engine power, which resulted in an uncontrolled descent into terrain. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor's lack of remedial action during the autorotation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN16FA315
- Event ID
- 20160810X82409
- Case number
- CEN16FA315
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2016-08-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6512e7dd16e1b658444622a5e6d5e8096c724b0cead0372aa6c3f114a80df621; retrieved 2026-09-14T21:58:19.585Z.