MIA92LA082 · Burch ROTORWAY EXEC ROTORWAY E
Burch ROTORWAY EXEC ROTORWAY E · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA92LA082
- 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
Burch ROTORWAY EXEC ROTORWAY E
- Aircraft type
- Burch ROTORWAY EXEC
- 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
- N618VN
- Operator
- Ronald W.Case
- 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 final
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical 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 › Flight controls, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PILOT WAS ON FINAL APPROACH FOR LANDING IN VFR CONDITIONS WHEN THE ENGINE SUSTAINED A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE PILOT ENTERED AUTOROTATION. AT 30-40 FEET AGL A DECELERATION WAS INITIATED AND COLLECTIVE PITCH WAS APPLIED AT 3-7 FEET AGL. THE HELICOPTER TOUCHED DOWN HARD WITH FORWARD MOVEMENT AND THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES COLLIDED WITH THE TAILBOOM. THE HELICOPTER SKIDDED FORWARD AND THE TIP OF THE LEFT SKID BECAME IMBEDDED IN A MOUND OF DIRT. THE HELICOPTER ROLLED OVER ON ITS LEFT SIDE SUSTAINING SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. THE PRIVATE PILOT WAS NOT INJURED. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME BY THE FAA AND THE LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT REVEALED THE LEFT SKID SEPARATED FROM THE FUSELAGE AT THE WELD JOINT ON THE SKID SUPPORT STRUT. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE BY A FIELD REPRESENTATIVE FOR ROTORWAY INTERNATIONAL FOR THE REGISTERED OWNER REVEALED AN EXHAUST VALVE ON THE NUMBER 2 CYLINDER HAD FAILED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S IMPROPER APPLICATION OF CYCLIC AND COLLECTIVE PITCH CONTROL DURING AN AUTOROTATIVE LANDING. THIS RESULTED IN A HARD LANDING, COLLISION OF THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES WITH THE TAILBOOM, AND SUBSEQUENT ROLL OVER OF THE HELICOPTER. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER CAUSED BY A TOTAL FAILURE OF THE ENGINE ASSEMBY EXHAUST VALVE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA92LA082
- Event ID
- 20001211X14155
- Case number
- MIA92LA082
- 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: 01d7d7cfef915585dd40e3dec5fa2a8289b78c10c04e87c5cd766871033231eb; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:23:10.504Z.