- Date
- March 9, 2023, 17:00 local (22:00 UTC)
- Place
- Titusville, FL
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Emergency descent
- Aircraft
- N8911FHughes 269A
- Defining event
- Autorotation: Hard landing
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA FSDO
- FAA report
- 20230309001299A
- Case key
- 106856
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate main rotor RPM during an autorotation which resulted in a hard landing and subsequent rotor blade strike of the tail boom.
Findings · 4
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The flight instructor reported that he was demonstrating a 180° autorotation for his passenger into an open field off airport grounds. Nearing the end of the maneuver, prior to touchdown, he failed to recover engine power in a timely manner which resulted in the rapid decay of the rotor rpm at low altitude; this resulted in a hard landing that subsequently caused the main rotor blades to make contact with the tail boom and severed the tail rotor driveshaft. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and the main rotor blades. The pilot reported that there were no pre accident mechanical malfunctions with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8911F
- Reported as
- Hughes 269A
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 0230
- Built
- 1963
- Airframe hours
- 2,581
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360-B1B, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- A & J Aviation Services LLC.
- Registered owner
- A & J Aviation Services LLC.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · January 22, 2023
- Departed
- TIX · Titusville, FL
- Equipment
- ADS-B
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 41
- Injuries
- None
- Certificates
- Airline transport, Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Helicopter, Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1
- Seat
- Right
- Restraint
- 4-point
- Flight hours
- 8,567 total · 97 in this make and model · 3,380 as pilot in command · 103 in the last 90 days · 41 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 100° at 8 knots
- Visibility
- 7 statute miles
- Temperature
- 79 °F, dew point 52 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.13 inHg
- Observed at
- TIX, 1 nm away
- METAR
- METAR KTIX 092048Z 10008KT 7SM SCT042 26/11 A3013=
Docket · 4
The files NTSB released with the investigation on June 23, 2023, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 16.0 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N8911F · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.