MIA00FA060 · Robinson R44
Robinson R44 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (SIG) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA00FA060
- 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 R44
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R44
- 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
- N233MP
- Operator
- Avietch
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport (SIG), San Juan, PRTo 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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 › Carburetor heat, not used
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Cayey, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated he was in cruise flight at 700 feet over a residential area when the helicopter experienced a reported loss of engine and rotor rpm. The pilot did not activate the carburetor heat as required by the pilot operating handbook. The pilot lowered the collective pitch and increased throttle with negative results. He initiated a forced landing to a field but realized he would not be able to reach it. He made a forced landing to a residential carport. The right skid slipped through the roof, the aircraft rolled over on its right side and the main rotor blades collided with the roof. Examination of the airframe and flight controls revealed no evidence of a precrash mechanical failure or malfunction. The engine assembly was removed and mounted in a dynamometer test cell. The engine was started and produced engine power.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to use carburetor heat as required by the Pilot's Operating Handbook resulting in a loss of engine and rotor rpm, forced landing to none suitable terrain (residence), and subsequent roll over.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA00FA060
- Event ID
- 20001212X20402
- Case number
- MIA00FA060
- 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: 7e184d49f5da62779a6a7cfd9d38169add7bd88daab75023ccac57ee3d77324b; retrieved 2026-09-22T13:27:41.682Z.