CHI95LA034 · Robinson R-22B
Robinson R-22B · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Moma Airport (MQJ) to Moma Airport (MQJ)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA034
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Robinson R-22B
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R-22
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N317GB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Moma Airport (MQJ)To Moma Airport (MQJ)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Cyclic, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HELD A PRIVATE CERTIFICATE FOR SINGLE ENGINE LAND AIRPLANES AND WAS PILOTING THE HELICOPTER ON A SUPERVISED SOLO FLIGHT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. HE REPORTED THAT HE HAD 307 HOURS IN AIRPLANES AND 23 HOURS IN THE HELICOPTER WITH ONE HOUR SOLO, AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. HE STATED THAT ON INITIAL TAKEOFF ADJACENT TO RUNWAY 25, HE WAS AWARE OF AN AIRPLANE DEPARTING ON RUNWAY 25 AND WHEN IT CAME INTO HIS SIGHT, HIGH AND TO HIS LEFT, HE TURNED TO CONFIRM ITS PRESENCE. WHEN HE TURNED BACK, HE FOUND THAT HE HAD ALLOWED THE HELICOPTER TO PITCH NOSE HIGH AND RESPONDED BY MOVING THE CYCLIC CONTROL FORWARD. HE DESCRIBED LOSING CONTROL OF THE HELICOPTER AND HE WAS ABLE TO RECOVER TO A NEAR LEVEL CONDITION AT TOUCHDOWN. THE HELICOPTER TOUCHED DOWN HARD AND ROLLED ONTO ITS RIGHT SIDE.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper use of the cyclic control. Factors were the diversion of attention and total lack of experience in the type of aircraft, by the pilot.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA034
- Event ID
- 20001206X02573
- Case number
- CHI95LA034
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: dc2a21e9579bba8ff06a85c2410ecbed81aa2ef4c9967c19aaeffe4058ad6ca7; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:28:10.565Z.