10 Jun 2017: HUGHES 269C

10 Jun 2017: HUGHES 269C (N7482F) — Unknown operator

No fatalities • Tallulah, LA, United States

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to reset the cyclic trim before takeoff, which resulted in ground resonance.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On June 10, 2017, about 1320 central daylight time, a Hughes 269C helicopter, N7482F, was substantially damaged during a ground resonance event at the Vicksburg Tallulah Regional Airport (TVR), Tallulah, Louisiana. The pilot was not injured. The helicopter was registered to Wade and Son, Inc., and operated by the pilot as a 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 instructional flight. Day visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the accident site. The flight was not operated on a flight plan. The local flight was originating at the time of the accident.The pilot reported that the cyclic trim was not re-centered before takeoff as noted on the checklist. Instead, it remained at a nearly full forward position from the previous flight. The engine start and run-up were normal. At full power for takeoff, the helicopter began to vibrate. The pilot "rolled the throttle off" and lowered the collective; however, the vibrations became worse and the helicopter "began to destroy itself." He noted that if the cyclic had been centered, the vibrations would have stopped. However, with the trim full forward, the rotor blades began hitting the stops causing the vibrations. The pilot added that there were no malfunctions or failures with the helicopter before the accident.

The helicopter came to rest upright on the airport ramp. A postaccident examination revealed that the engine had partially separated from the airframe and the main rotor gearbox had separated from the rear bulkhead. The landing skid dampers appeared intact, with no visible damage or fluid leakage.

Contributing factors

  • cause Pilot
  • cause Pilot

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 000/05kt, 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.