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LAX95LA158 · Robinson R-22B

11 Apr 1995 · Lakeport, CA, United States

Resort Aviation Robinson R-22B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach

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Event

NTSB case
LAX95LA158
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
N4015Y
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded
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
Approach · VFR pattern downwind
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
Airframe, component or system failure
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 › Flare, misjudged
  • Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not verified

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE STUDENT WAS DOING TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN WHEN THE LOW ROTOR RPM WARNING HORN ACTIVATED. THE STUDENT WAS UNSUCCESSFUL IN EXTINGUISHING THE WARNING HORN BY THROTTLE AND COLLECTIVE MANIPULATION AND ENTERED AN AUTOROTATION. THE STUDENT DID NOT VERIFY THE MAIN ROTOR RPM BY THE ROTOR TACHOMETER. DURING THE TOUCHDOWN, ABOUT 1/4-MILE SOUTHEAST OF THE AIRPORT IN A SOFT FIELD, THE SKIDS DUG INTO SOFT SOIL AND THE HELICOPTER ROLLED OVER. A FAA INSPECTOR EXAMINED THE AIRCRAFT AND ENGINE, WHICH INCLUDED AN ENGINE START AND STATIC RUN-UP. THE ENGINE STARTED NORMALLY AND WAS EXERCISED THROUGHOUT ITS NORMAL POWER RANGE. MAINTENANCE RECORDS REVEALED A HISTORY OF FALSE LOW ROTOR RPM WARNING HORN ACTIVATIONS IN THE HELICOPTER DATING BACK 9 MONTHS. AFTER PILOTS WOULD REPORT THE WARNING HORN DISCREPANCY TO MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL, A SYSTEM COMPONENT WOULD BE CHANGED AND THE HELICOPTER RETURNED TO SERVICE; HOWEVER, THE PROBLEM PERSISTED. THE CFI'S SAID THEY TRAINED THE STUDENTS, INCLUDING THE ACCIDENT PILOT, HOW TO COPE WITH THE NUISANCE WARNING.

Probable cause

the student's misjudged landing flare and his failure to verify the validity of the low rotor warning. Factors in the accident were the company management's continued use of the helicopter in flight training operations with a known discrepancy in the main rotor warning system, and the soft nature of the soil at the autorotation landing area.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX95LA158
Event ID
20001207X03315
Case number
LAX95LA158
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: 5f57f8a318dd02593d5bfaed82b71658e62d89c77c4aeb0b43ca3e2ef57913aa; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:04:11.857Z.