LAX92LA165 · Robinson R22B
CSR Aviation Robinson R22B · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Long Beach International Airport (LGB) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA165
- 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 R22B
- 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
- N40433
- Operator
- CSR Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Long Beach International Airport (LGB), Long Beach, 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT INDICATED THAT PRIOR TO DEPARTURE HE HAD RECEIVED A FULL WEATHER BRIEFING AND NO SIGNIFICANT WEATHER WAS FORECAST FOR HIS ROUTE OF FLIGHT. THE INITIAL PORTION OF THE FLIGHT WAS UNEVENTFUL. HOWEVER, WHEN THE PILOT ENTERED A MOUNTAIN PASS AREA AT HIS CRUISE ALTITUDE OF 500 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL, THE WINDS BECAME VERY STRONG AND HE EXPERIENCED SEVERE TURBULENCE. THE PILOT FURTHER REPORTED THAT HE ATTEMPTED TO TURN INTO THE WIND FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING AN EMERGENCY LANDING. WHILE MANEUVERING HE LOST CONTROL OF THE HELICOPTER AND COLLIDED WITH THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AT AN ELEVATION OF ABOUT 3,000 FEET MEAN SEA LEVEL.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A PROPER CRUISE ALTITUDE UPON ENTERING A MOUNTAIN PASS AREA, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE HELICOPTER. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE PILOT'S LOSS OF CONTROL WERE RELATED TO HIS ENCOUNTERING TURBULENCE AND DOWNDRAFTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA165
- Event ID
- 20001211X14449
- Case number
- LAX92LA165
- 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: 4b23f59ce9bbe27574c6601c404afb65af513919e12a8d0922d8ffb0d76c269f; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:15:22.838Z.