ERA25LA144 · Schweizer 269C
Neo Helicopter Academy Schweizer 269C · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Wadsworth Municipal Airport (3G3) to Portage County Regional Airport (POV)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA25LA144
- 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
- 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
- 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
- N262LH
- Operator
- Neo Helicopter Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wadsworth Municipal Airport (3G3), WADSWORTH MUNI, OHTo Portage County Regional Airport (POV), Ravenna, OH
- Aircraft age
- About 16 years (built 2009)
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the helicopter was on a cross-country flight and descended as the helicopter approached a reservoir, flying low over the water, but maintaining course. Night lighting conditions existed at the time, and witnesses near the scene reported it was very dark. The helicopter was flying at an estimated height of about 20 to 50 feet above the water when it impacted the top static wire of a set of power lines that ran perpendicular to the flight path. The helicopter then impacted the water about 200 ft from the shoreline. All major components of the helicopter were located at the accident site and postaccident examination of the wreckage revealed no evidence of any preimpact malfunction or failure of the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation. Multiple wire striation marks were present on the rotor blades and blade grips. The pilot’s decision to fly at such a low altitude, over a wide body of water, and in dark conditions placed him at an increased risk of collision with unseen objects, such as wires.
Probable cause
The pilot’s decision to fly at low altitude, at night, and over water, which resulted in the helicopter’s collision with power lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA25LA144
- Event ID
- 20250314199857
- Case number
- ERA25LA144
- 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, cause areas. 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: 16cfe19cfb1ae64355d32b86e35a280ab06573b4d3390cdc581bdb5644b7d219; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:02:53.321Z.