LAX00LA279 · Robinson R-22 Beta R-22
Robinson R-22 Beta R-22 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while standing
From Wickenburg Municipal Airport (E25) to Scottsdale Airport (SDL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX00LA279
- 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 Beta R-22
- 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
- N888KB
- Operator
- Gordon Jiroux
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wickenburg Municipal Airport (E25), Wickenburg, AZTo Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, AZ
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Rotor system, tail rotor › Failure
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter had a tail rotor failure while bringing the engine up to full power before takeoff. In preparation for departure, the pilot released the control frictions and began to increase the throttle. As the power approached 95 percent, but before engaging the governor, the aircraft began to shake uncontrollably and the antitorque pedals began to move under his feet. He immediately reduced the throttle to idle, took out the checklist, and shutdown the aircraft per the instructions. He noted visible damage to the tail rotor and vertical stabilizer.
Probable cause
The helicopter had a tail rotor failure. The reason for the failure is undetermined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX00LA279
- Event ID
- 20001212X21519
- Case number
- LAX00LA279
- 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: 06b40d81747a463fdf7cafb3f517b51f119cdf8208981a109a186b35b22968f2; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:39:07.653Z.