Hughes 269C N58408

Summary

On 13 December 1999 at about 20:35 local time, a Hughes 269C registered N58408 was involved in an accident near Salina, Kansas, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 were seriously injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

13 December 1999 at 20:35

Classification

Accident

Location

Salina, Kansas, United States

Coordinates

38.8101, -97.6110

Aircraft

Hughes 269C

Registration

N58408

Category

Helicopter

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Other Work Use

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CHI00LA044

2 people were seriously injured.

The pilot's failure to follow the published practice autorotation procedures, the improper use of throttle, and the inadequate flare.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot was performing a practice autorotation. He stated that he began the practice autorotation by '...lowering the collective all the way and reducing the throttle setting to a point where the engine RPM and rotor RPM needles split. I verified that the needles split, but something didn't feel normal.' The pilot elected to abandon the maneuver and added power to recover. The pilot stated: 'As best I can remember, the engine and rotor RPM needles had syncronized [sic] and were at approximately the right clock position on the tach face.' The pilot said that at this time he was '...becoming aware of an extremely high descent rate.' The pilot flight manual for the aircraft describes the procedure for practice autorotation as follows: 'Split the needles by lowering the collective while maintaining throttle setting. The throttle correlation will establish a high idle rpm (approximately 2000 rpm) which will aid in preventing the engine from loading up or stalling during recovery. No apparent preexisting anomalies were detected with respect to the aircraft or systems. The pilot listed no mechanical malfunction in his written report.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.