2017 New Jersey helicopter crash
Helicopter Flight Services Schweizer 269C 1 · Loss of control, hard landing
From Flying W Airport (N14) to Flying W Airport (N14)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17FA317
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 2
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
- N204HF
- Operator
- Helicopter Flight Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Flying W Airport (N14), Medford, NJTo Flying W Airport (N14), Medford, NJ
- Aircraft age
- About 17 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
From the Wikipedia article
On 8 September 2017, a Schweizer 269C helicopter crashed after an uncontrolled descent during a power-off landing attempt at the Flying W Airport in Medford, New Jersey, United States. The aircraft had experienced engine trouble during a local sightseeing flight for the benefit of passenger Troy Gentry, cofounder and member of American country music duo Montgomery Gentry, which was scheduled to perform at a resort at the airport later that day. The pilot died at the scene; Gentry was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital.
Crash
The company flight instructor stated that the purpose of the flight was to provide orientation and pleasure for Gentry, who was scheduled to perform at the airport in the evening. During the flight, the pilot reported over UNICOM that manipulating the twist-grip engine control had no effect on engine rpm, and he elected to prepare for a precautionary landing. At 12:40 EDT (16:40 UTC), local police received a call that a helicopter was in distress, and officers arrived at the airport a short time later. At approximately 13:00 EDT, the pilot shut off the engine and initiated a power-off descent under autorotation from approximately 950 ft above ground level; however, as the descent proceeded, vertical speed became excessive. The aircraft impacted the ground about 220 ft south of and in line with Runway 01, leaving a 10 ft ground scar; the impact substantially deformed the passenger cabin and separated the tail boom from the aircraft. The pilot was trapped in the wreckage and pronounced dead at the scene; passenger Gentry died of his injuries after being taken to Virtua Hospital Marlton.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) immediately began investigations of the accident. On 13 September 2017, the NTSB announced preliminary findings, reporting that the helicopter had experienced engine trouble and that the rotor blades had slowed significantly before the aircraft impacted the ground.
Investigators found that after the pilot reported that the engine was not responding to throttle inputs, he consulted with a company flight instructor and a Designated Pilot Examiner, who both attempted to convince him to perform a shallow run-on landing; however, he decided to perform a power-off landing under autorotation, as this was more familiar to him. Despite being advised "multiple times" to aim for "midfield" and not to initiate the descent until over the runway, he initiated autorotation significantly south of the runway. As the descent progressed, the flight instructor reported that vertical speed became excessive and forward speed became inadequate, and that the rotors appeared as individual rotating blades rather than a "translucent disc," indicative of decaying rotor rpm. A video recorded by police likewise showed vertical speed increasing and horizontal speed decreasing as the descent proceeded. A post-crash examination revealed that the rotor blades suffered little to no damage along their respective spans toward the blade tips, which is consistent with low rotor rpm on impact.
The throttle tie rod assembly was found separated at the threaded joint, and although it was contaminated by debris from the impact crater, cleaning and close examination of the tie rod threads revealed damage consistent with vibratory thread-to-thread wear. Investigators determined that a new throttle control cable had been installed on 31 August 2016 and that it had been most recently inspected on 17 August 2017. Additionally, the engine had been changed in 2011, and the carburetor had been changed in 2014. According to the aircraft maintenance manual, throttle rigging should be performed whenever the throttle control cable, engine, and/or carburetor is changed; however, the mechanic stated that he was "not 100 percent [sure]" that this had been done when the engine was changed, and he claimed that "no adjustments were necessary to achieve/maintain proper rigging" when changing the cable.
The NTSB report quotes other documents warning against the excessive application of collective pitch during autorotation, stating that it could "result in a hard landing with corresponding damage to the helicopter" and that it should "never be applied to reduce rpm for extending glide distance."
The accident was attributed to "The pilot's early entry into and failure to maintain rotor rpm during a forced landing autorotation after performing an engine shutdown in flight, which resulted in an uncontrolled descent. Contributing to the accident was the failure of maintenance personnel to properly rig the throttle control tie-rod assembly, which resulted in an in-flight separation of the assembly and rendered control of engine rpm impossible."
Text from the Wikipedia article “2017 New Jersey helicopter crash” (revision 1339294056, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
The purpose of the flight was to provide an orientation/pleasure flight to the passenger, who was scheduled to perform in a concert on the airport later that evening. Several minutes after takeoff, the pilot reported over the airport UNICOM frequency that he was unable to control engine rpm with throttle inputs. He reported that he could "roll" the twist-grip; however, there was no corresponding change in engine power when he did so.
Three helicopter flight instructors, one a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector, one an FAA designated examiner, and a company flight instructor, joined the conversation on the radio to discuss with the pilot remedial actions and landing options. These options included a shallow, power-on approach to a run-on landing, or a power-off, autorotational descent to landing. The instructors encouraged the pilot to perform the run-on landing, but the pilot reported that a previous run-on landing attempt was unsuccessful. He then announced that he would shut down the engine and perform an autorotation, which he said was a familiar procedure that he had performed numerous times in the past. The instructors stressed to the pilot multiple times that he should delay the engine shutdown and autorotation entry until the helicopter was over the runway surface.
Video footage from a vantage point nearly abeam the approach end of the runway showed the helicopter about 1/4 to 1/2 mile south of the runway as it entered a descent profile consistent with an autorotation. Toward the end of the video, the descent profile steepened and the rate of descent increased before the helicopter descended out of view. Witnesses reported seeing individual rotor blades as the main rotor turned during the latter portion of the descent.
The increased angle and rate of descent and slowing of the rotor blades is consistent with a loss of rotor rpm during the autorotation. Despite multiple suggestions from other helicopter instructors that he initiate the autorotation above the runway, the pilot shut down the engine and entered the autorotation from an altitude about 950 ft above ground level between 1/4 and 1/2 mile from the end of the runway. Upon realizing that the helicopter would not reach the runway, the pilot could have landed straight ahead and touched down prior to the runway or performed a 180° turn to a field directly behind the helicopter; however, he continued the approach to the runway and attempted to extend the helicopter's glide by increasing collective pitch, an action that resulted in a decay of rotor rpm and an uncontrolled descent.
Examination of the wreckage revealed evidence consistent with the two-piece throttle control tie rod assembly having disconnected in flight. The internally threaded rod attached to the bellcrank and an externally threaded rod-end bearing attached to the throttle control arm displayed damage to the three end-threads of each. The damage was consistent with an incorrectly adjusted throttle control tie rod assembly with reduced thread engagement, which led to separation of the rod end bearing from the tie rod and resulted in loss of control of engine rpm via the throttle twist grip control.
Probable cause
The pilot's early entry into and failure to maintain rotor rpm during a forced landing autorotation after performing an engine shutdown in flight, which resulted in an uncontrolled descent. Contributing to the accident was the failure of maintenance personnel to properly rig the throttle control tie-rod assembly, which resulted in an in-flight separation of the assembly and rendered control of engine rpm impossible.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2017 New Jersey helicopter crash
- Revision
- 1339294056 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q60776046
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ERA17FA317
- Event ID
- 20170908X43517
- Case number
- ERA17FA317
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2017 New Jersey helicopter crash" (page 59196994, revision 1339294056); merged with NTSB case ERA17FA317 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record ERA17FA317: NTSB narrative opening date, consistent with the API date and time (local date)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record ERA17FA317
- Map position
- NTSB record ERA17FA317: events decimal coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record ERA17FA317: aircraft; gaps from Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- NTSB record ERA17FA317: operated under Part 91: General Aviation
- Fatalities
- NTSB record ERA17FA317: NTSB API totalFatal
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record ERA17FA317: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2017 New Jersey helicopter crash" and NTSB case ERA17FA317, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this US event the NTSB's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- 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.