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LAX92LA199 · Robinson R-22B

4 May 1992 · SUN VALLEY, CA, United States

Complete Aviation Services Robinson R-22B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route

From Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX92LA199
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-22B

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
N4081P
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR), Burbank, 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
Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Fuel exhaustion
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

  • Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Flare, misjudged
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Refueling, not performed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT SAID THAT HE HAD FLOWN THE HELICOPTER ON THE FLIGHT PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT SESSION FOR ABOUT 1.2 HOURS. THE HELICOPTER BEGAN THAT FLIGHT WITH FULL FUEL TANKS AND IT WAS NOT REFUELED AFTER LANDING. THE INSTRUCTOR STATED THAT HE PERFORMED THE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION WITH THE STUDENT ON THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT AND VISUALLY LOOKED INSIDE THE FUEL TANK AND DETERMINED THAT ABOUT ONE HOUR AND FORTY MINUTES OF FUEL WAS ON BOARD. HE SAID THAT HE DID NOT USE A MEASURING DEVICE TO QUANTIFY THE AMOUNT OF FUEL IN THE TANK, BUT RATHER VISUALLY ESTIMATED THAT THE AMOUNT HE OBSERVED MATCHED THE FUEL GAGE. AFTER DEPARTURE FROM BURBANK THE FLIGHT PROCEEDED TO THE LOCAL PRACTICE AREA WHERE THE ONE HOUR DUAL STUDENT WAS GIVEN A LESSON ON PRIMARY FLIGHT MANEUVERS. THE FLIGHT WAS ON APPROACH TO THE BURBANK AIRPORT AFTER ONE HOUR AND TWELVE MINUTES WHEN THE LOW FUEL LEVEL WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED. THE INSTRUCTOR NOTED THAT THE ENGINE QUIT IMMEDIATELY THEREAFTER AND HE EXECUTED AN AUTO ROTATION TO A CITY PARK. THE HELICOPTER LANDED HARD, BENDING THE TAIL BOOM. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE TANK AFTER THE ACCIDENT.

Probable cause

1) FUEL EXHAUSTION DUE TO IMPROPER PREFLIGHT PLANNING BY THE CFI AND HIS FAILURE TO REFUEL THE AIRCRAFT PRIOR TO DEPARTURE ON THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT, AND 2) THE CFI'S MISJUDGEMENT OF THE LANDING FLARE TIMING DURING THE AUTO ROTATION.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX92LA199
Event ID
20001211X14679
Case number
LAX92LA199
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: fd2d5a9e4595a85268e897f01a239fb624e275fa5862fcd79b074abf7e1421d4; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:11:21.070Z.