Several minutes after takeoff from Flying W Airport in Medford, New Jersey, U.S., the pilot of a sightseeing Schweizer 269C-1 radioed that he was unable to control engine rpm by advancing and retracting the throttle. He shut down the engine to conduct an autorotative landing but lost control of the helicopter, which crashed to the ground.
The Sept. 8, 2017, accident killed the pilot and his sole passenger, musician Troy Gentry, who had boarded the helicopter for an orientation flight in advance of a concert scheduled that night on the airport grounds.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said, in its final report on the accident, that the probable cause was the pilot’s “early entry into and failure to maintain rotor rpm during a forced landing autorotation after performing an engine shutdown in flight, which resulted in an uncontrolled descent.”
The NTSB cited as a contributing factor “the failure of maintenance personnel to properly rig the throttle co…
