LAX93LA208 · Robinson R-22
Parflite Robinson R-22 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Riverside Municipal Airport (RAL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA208
- 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-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
- N4071G
- Operator
- Parflite
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Riverside Municipal Airport (RAL), Riverside, CATo 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
- 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
- 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 › Collective, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Corona, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A ROBINSON R-22 COLLIDED WITH TREES IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AFTER SUSTAINING LOSS OF ENGINE AND MAIN ROTOR RPM WHILE IN FORWARD FLIGHT AT 20 TO 30 KNOTS 100 TO 150 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND. THE MAIN ROTOR RPM DROOPED ABOUT 3 TO 4 PERCENT TO 101 PERCENT. THE PILOT FAILED TO IMMEDIATELY LOWER THE COLLECTIVE TO REGAIN LOST ROTOR RPM AS SPECIFIED IN THE FLIGHT MANUAL. THE WRECKAGE EXAMINATION DISCLOSED NO EVIDENCE OF PREEXISTING MECHANICAL FAILURES OR MALFUNCTIONS.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ACCOMPLISH THE PUBLISHED EMERGENCY PROCEDURE BY NOT IMMEDIATELY LOWERING THE COLLECTIVE TO REGAIN MAIN ROTOR RPM. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S SELECTION OF A CRUISE ALTITUDE INSUFFICIENT TO ALLOW FOR CONTINGENCY SITUATIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA208
- Event ID
- 20001211X12424
- Case number
- LAX93LA208
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1993-05-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7c6708771f84fc9475fd27638ec706d343f7dc1404a1b0ff557dd890dfa3a4f7; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:57:52.366Z.