- Date
- July 11, 1989, 13:25 local (20:25 UTC)
- Place
- Oakland, CA
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N288Enstrom F28F
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report July 22, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890711021899A
- Case key
- 26234
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
Failure of the pilot to properly maintain rotor RPM throughout the autorotation.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The certificated private pilot elected to conduct a practice autorotation with turn and recover with power. The pilot was flying with a passenger. The pilot allowed the rotor RPM to bleed off and was unable to recover the RPM before touchdown. The helicopter landed hard collapsing the skid type landing gear system. The main rotor then contacted the tailboom. The helicopter slid about 100 feet after touchdown and rotated 90 degrees to the left.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N288
- Reported as
- Enstrom F28F
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 742
- Airframe hours
- 3,304
- Engine
- Lycoming HIO-360-F1AD, 225 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Public aircraft · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Oakland Police Dept.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · June 15, 1989 · 63 hours before
- Departed
- OAK · Oakland, CA
- Airport
- OAK · Oakland Int'L
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
- 38
- Certificate
- Private
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 207 total · 78 in this make and model · 65 as pilot in command · 63 in the last 90 days · 17 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.