21 Feb 2017: SCHWEIZER 269C 1 — Tomlinson Aviation Inc.

21 Feb 2017: SCHWEIZER 269C 1 — Tomlinson Aviation Inc.

No fatalities • Ormond beach, FL, United States

Probable cause

The separation of the throttle cable’s outer housing from the inner housing at the throttle linkage while at a high-power setting, which prevented the pilot from being able to control the throttle and execute a proper landing flare and resulted in a hard landing.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The flight instructor of the helicopter reported that about halfway through the flight he "discovered that the throttle control was inoperative" and stuck in the high RPM setting. He turned the helicopter back to the departure airport and briefed his student on the situation. Upon being cleared to land, he executed a "running landing" and performed a go around on the first try. On the second try, the skids made hard contact with the runway and the helicopter came to a stop.

A post-accident examination revealed the helicopter had sustained substantial damage to the fuselage.

The flight instructor reported that the throttle cable outer housing separated from the inner solid housing at the throttle linkage, and that the internal wire could now flex outside of the housing.

Contributing factors

  • cause Malfunction
  • cause Attain/maintain not possible

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 140/11kt, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.