FTW97LA327 · Robinson R22 BETA
Robinson R22 BETA · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Garland/Dfw Heloplex Heliport (T57) to Terrell Municipal Airport (TRL)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA327
- 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 R22 BETA
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R22
- 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
- N8057Z
- Operator
- Carl W. Houser · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Garland/Dfw Heloplex Heliport (T57), Garland, TXTo Terrell Municipal Airport (TRL), TERREL, TX
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 engine power
- 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, premature
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student was certificated as a single-engine land airplane pilot, and was taking instruction in a Robinson R22 helicopter. According to him, while on a solo cross-country flight, the helicopter began to experience engine vibrations with a loss of engine rpms. He initiated an autorotation to an open field, and approximately 40 feet above ground level, he began the landing flare, pulling up on the collective at the same time. He stated that he noticed 'the aircraft feeling funny,' and reduced 'some' of the collective. Approximately 8 feet above ground level, the helicopter 'just dropped' to the ground. The pilot received a back injury during the accident. He had difficulty egressing from the helicopter, noting that that his right side was numb. Examination of the engine revealed no abnormalities or deficiencies. The engine was placed on a test stand and operated for 15 minutes. The engine operated normally throughout all parameters.
Probable cause
the student pilot's premature flare for landing from an autorotation, and the ensuing loss of rotor rpm, which resulted in a hard landing. A factor relating to the accident was: partial loss of engine power for undetermined reason(s).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA327
- Event ID
- 20001208X08638
- Case number
- FTW97LA327
- 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: 4ee48217b533bafda6db3b41375ec16cb4b7a18f14c78bd976c3a1e8b641433b; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:52:11.575Z.