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CEN17LA336

2017-09-02 · Burnet, Texas, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's inadequate inflight decision making, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.

Factual narrative

On September 2, 2017, about 1645 central daylight time, a Hughes 369A helicopter, N50MP, conducted an autorotation near Burnet, Texas. The pilot was not injured, one passenger received minor injuries, and one passenger received serious injuries. The helicopter was substantially damaged during the landing. The helicopter was registered to and operated by Lyft, LLC, Missoula, Montana, under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. According to the responding Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector, the pilot and two passengers were conducting aerial hog hunt operations. The helicopter was en route to the Burnet Municipal Airport-Kate Craddock Field Burnet Municipal airport (KBMQ), Burnet, Texas, when the engine lost power. The pilot conducted an autorotation to a road; however, the helicopter landed hard, resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage and tailboom. The FAA inspector used a dip stick to check the fuel tank; the fuel tank was empty. The inspector also looked at the pump/injector and check valve; however, no residual fuel was found. The inspector checked the last place the helicopter was refuel, noting that the station's filters were not contaminated and that other people had purchased fuel and no problems had been reported. The pilot did not return a completed an NTSB 6120 form. The pilot and two passengers had conducted aerial hog hunt operations from a helicopter and were en route to an airport when the engine lost power. The pilot conducted an autorotation to a road; however, the helicopter landed hard, resulting in substantial damage. An examination of the helicopter revealed that the fuel tank was empty, and no residual fuel was found in the system. Since the pilot was en route to an airport where fuel was available, it is likely that he spent too much time airborne and misjudged the amount of fuel needed to reach the destination. The accident is consistent with a fuel exhaustion event. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-(general)-(general)-Pilot - C
  • C Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid level - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2017_CEN17LA336.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel exhaustion). All research papers