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SEA94LA166

1994-07-03 · WEST JORDAN, Utah, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport U42

N9029F has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (AIRBUS A319-115, built 2015), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT NOT MAINTAINING A PROPER DESCENT RATE AND HIS DELAYED REMEDIAL ACTION.

Factual narrative

On July 3, 1994, at about 1430 hours mountain daylight time, a Hughes 369HS helicopter, N9029F, made a hard landing during a practice autorotation at Salt Lake City Airport #2. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and no flight plan was filed for the local training flight. The helicopter was substantially damaged, but neither the pilot or the flight instructor were injured. The pilot reported that he was preparing for a part 135 check ride and was practicing autorotations with the company check pilot. An autorotation was started at about 500 to 600 feet above the ground. At about 100 to 150 feet above the ground, the instructor pilot realized that they were descending too fast. He added power to slow their descent but the helicopter landed hard, damaging the skids and the tail boom. DURING A PRACTICE AUTOROTATION, A HIGH DESCENT RATE DEVELOPED. THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT ADDED POWER BUT THE HELICOPTER STILL LANDED HARD ENOUGH TO SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGE THE HELICOPTER. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1994_SEA94LA166.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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