ERA25LA044 · Schweizer 269C-1
Schweizer 269C-1 · Accident
From an unrecorded airport to Mifflin County Airport (RVL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA25LA044
- 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
- 0
- 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
- N504JN
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Mifflin County Airport (RVL), Mifflintown, PA
- Aircraft age
- About 24 years (built 2000)
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the helicopter reported that he departed and initiated a slow climb to clear a nearby mountain. The pilot stated that, based on the temperature, dew point, and humidity, he applied carburetor heat; the helicopter’s icing gauge also indicated the need for carburetor heat. As the helicopter approached the mountain, the engine lost partial power, and the pilot maneuvered toward lower terrain to conduct a precautionary landing. The pilot identified a residential cul-de-sac as a landing site and attempted to apply power before touching down; however, the engine did not respond. The helicopter subsequently landed hard from a height of about 4 ft, and the tail boom impacted an embankment, resulting in substantial damage. A postaccident engine run did not reveal evidence of any preexisting anomalies or failures that would have prevented normal engine operation. The recorded temperature and dew point near the accident site were conducive to the development of carburetor icing at cruise and glide engine power settings; however, the pilot stated that he applied carburetor heat before the loss of engine power. Based on this information, the reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA25LA044
- Event ID
- 20241112195479
- Case number
- ERA25LA044
- 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, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2024-11-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 48c41cadb496bd59d972313ab6eccc94ac9c06a78ff4a60791ea26d9131c009f; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:28:06.740Z.