LAX92LA396 · Bell 47-G4A
Kainoa Aviation Bell 47-G4A · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Hilo International Airport (ITO) to Hilo International Airport (ITO)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's flight rules. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA396
- 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
Bell 47-G4A
- Aircraft type
- Bell 47
- 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
- N73279
- Operator
- Kainoa Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hilo International Airport (ITO), Hilo, HITo Hilo International Airport (ITO)
- 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 Possible conflict
- 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 · hover
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Collective, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Descent, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER WAS ON A LOCAL AREA FOR HIRE SIGHT SEEING FLIGHT TO THE PU'U O'O VENT IN VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE WAS HOVERING ABOVE THE VENT AT ABOUT 50 FEET AGL WHEN THE HELICOPTER STARTED SETTLING WITH POWER. HE SAID HE TURNED THE HELICOPTER DOWN SLOPE TO MAXIMIZE THE ALTITUDE AND ATTEMPT TO GAIN AIRSPEED. THE PREVAILING WIND WAS NOW FROM THE REAR OF THE HELICOPTER AS THE PILOT FLEW DOWN THE SLOPE AND THE HELICOPTER CONTINUED TO SETTLE TOWARD THE GROUND. THE PILOT SAID HE CONTINUOUSLY APPLIED COLLECTIVE PITCH IN AN ATTEMPT TO ARREST THE DESCENT, HOWEVER, THE HELICOPTER CONTINUED TO SETTLE AND COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND AND ROLLED OVER. THE PILOT NOTED THAT THERE WAS NO PREIMPACT FAILURE OF THE HELICOPTER.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF THE COLLECTIVE CONTROL AFTER INADVERTENTLY ENTERING A POWER SETTLING CONDITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA396
- Event ID
- 20001211X15730
- Case number
- LAX92LA396
- 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: 45bcd25872e75ae8bc2fd4cdc6f5ff53056dd61159d7ebc6cd4abf00d67777f4; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:07:12.805Z.