LAX91LA387 · Rotorway EXEC 90
Rotorway International Rotorway EXEC 90 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA387
- 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
- 1 · 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
Rotorway EXEC 90
- Aircraft type
- Rotorway EXEC 90
- 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
- N7456T
- Operator
- Rotorway International
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU), Glendale, AZTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER WAS A FACTORY BUILT PROTOTYPE FOR A NEW KIT DESIGN AND THE PILOT WAS A COMPANY EMPLOYEE. SHERIFFS DETECTIVES REPORTED THAT THE PILOT HAD BEEN ARRESTED THE EVENING BEFORE FOR DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL. ON THE AFTERNOON OF THE ACCIDENT, THE PILOT'S ROOMMATE TELEPHONED THE AIRPORT AND SAID THAT THE PILOT WAS NOT TO FLY BECAUSE HE 'WAS ON SOMETHING.' THE PILOT ARRIVED AT THE AIRPORT AND TOOK THE HELICOPTER. ACCORDING TO THE COMPANY OWNER, THE PILOT STOLE THE HELICOPTER. WITNESSES AT THE LAKE REPORTED THAT THE HELICOPTER ARRIVED OVER THE LAKE AND BEGAN TO PERFORM A SERIES OF AEROBATIC LIKE MANEUVERS. THE HELICOPTER REPORTEDLY BUZZED SEVERAL BOATS IN THE LAKE AT A LOW LEVEL. AFTER ABOUT 30 MINUTES OF MANEUVERING, THE WITNESSES SAID THE HELICOPTER SEEMED TO STOP, THEN DIVE INTO THE LAKE. SHERIFF'S DETECTIVES REPORTED THAT TWO SUICIDE NOTES WERE FOUND IN THE PILOT'S AUTOMOBILE PARKED AT THE AIRPORT.
Probable cause
UNDETERMINED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA387
- Event ID
- 20001212X18117
- Case number
- LAX91LA387
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1991-09-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f10f5b3be060c05a6efd06ccd69a277fb8d699d1af8ba0ab73df3c4049614cd8; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:35:44.593Z.