NYC91LA071 · Robinson R-22 ALPHA
American Helicopter Robinson R-22 ALPHA · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Brookhaven Calabro Airport (HWV) to Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC91LA071
- 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 ALPHA
- 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
- N8555K
- Operator
- American Helicopter
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brookhaven Calabro Airport (HWV), Shirley, NYTo Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP), Ronkonkoma, NY
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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 › Flare, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
N8555K WAS ENROUTE FROM SHIRLEY, NEW YORK, TO ISLIP, NEW YORK, AT A CRUISING ALTITUDE OF 1100 FEET WHEN THE PILOT HEARD A PERSISTENT NOISE FROM THE REAR OF THE AIRCRAFT. HE ATTEMPTED A PRECAUTIONARY AUTOROTATIVE LANDING. THE NOISE PERSISTED THROUGHOUT DESCENT. AT APPROXIMATELY 5 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND, TAIL ROTOR EFFECTIVENESS WAS LOST, AND THE HELICOPTER SKID MADE CONTACT WITH THE GROUND CAUSING A ROLL OVER.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ROTOR RPM AND MISJUDGING THE HEIGHT OF THE FLARE DURING A PRECAUTIONARY AUTOROTATIVE LANDING, RESULTING IN A ROLL OVER DURING THE LANDING FLARE TOUCHDOWN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC91LA071
- Event ID
- 20001212X16501
- Case number
- NYC91LA071
- 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: b88a504a0de7510214ea5a9b48437ea1cd6bde952250d6d79d869b777bd19ec5; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:49:33.028Z.