GAA19CA514 · Hughes 269A
Kelley Aviation Consultants Hughes 269A · Accident: hard landing during autorotation
From Northumberland County Airport (N79) to Northumberland County Airport (N79)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA514
- 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 269A
- 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
- N653CH
- Operator
- Kelley Aviation Consultants
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Northumberland County Airport (N79), Shamokin, PATo Northumberland County Airport (N79), Shamokin, PA
- Aircraft age
- About 54 years (built 1965)
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter pilot reported that he was being evaluated for a pilot position with a perspective employer, who was an airplane pilot-rated passenger and occupied the right front seat. He was asked to perform an autorotation as part of the evaluation, and while entering the autorotation, he noticed that the rotor and engine needles were split and that the engine tachometer indicated 0 rpm. He believed that the engine had failed. The pilot maintained the rotor rpm in the green and entered a flare about 40 ft above ground level. He attempted to cushion the landing, but the helicopter landed hard. The pilot reported that he could not hear if the engine was running during the flight because he was wearing a noise-canceling headset.
The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the horizontal airframe tube cross-member.
During postaccident examination of the helicopter, the throttle linkage functioned normally. All spark plugs were removed and examined and exhibited indications of normal combustion. A fuel sample was obtained through the sump valve, and no water or particulate contamination was found. No evidence of any preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures were found with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper landing flare during an autorotation, which resulted in a hard landing. Contributing to the accident was a loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examination revealed no evidence of any preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA514
- Event ID
- 20190826X55246
- Case number
- GAA19CA514
- 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: 663cb2400ccd9f93741dc29b7f222ed6a62c6de4117dc60c54b9def90e993a98; retrieved 2026-09-16T09:53:16.056Z.