LAX99FA006 · Robinson R-22
Robinson R-22 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Lampson Field (1O2) to Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99FA006
- 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
- 2 · 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-22
- 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
- N801EH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lampson Field (1O2), Lakeport, CATo Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC), SCARAMENTO, CA
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
- Unknown › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Unknown › Compensation for wind conditions, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After completing a refueling stop at a nearby airport, the helicopter was next seen flying on a southeasterly heading at low altitude. Gusting winds at the accident site were opposite the direction of flight. The aircraft began a deceleration, the tailboom struck the ground and was severed by the main rotor blades as the aircraft pitched forward. As the nose pitched down, the main rotor blades struck the ground in front of the aircraft and the rotor head separated from the mast. The aircraft then rolled onto its right side with the engine running. A few seconds after impact, the aircraft burst into flames. The throttle was at idle and carburetor heat was applied. The stinger was broken from the empennage. Neither occupant wore fire-retardant apparel. The area of the accident site is commonly used for simulated emergency landings. Insufficient evidence existed to determine which pilot was manipulating the flight controls.
Probable cause
The flight instructor's failure to adequately supervise the conduct of the flight and the failure of the flying pilot to ensure that adequate ground clearance existed between the stinger/tail rotor and the ground during a deceleration while the aircraft was maneuvering for a practice forced landing. The identity of the flying pilot could not be determined. The instructor's decision to perform the maneuver with a gusty, surface tailwind was a factor in this accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99FA006
- Event ID
- 20001211X11280
- Case number
- LAX99FA006
- 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: b8b0f259d250023c881d4bbf37190d7a4226ef729fb614490cbafbd2af383af3; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:22:25.206Z.