NYC90LA103 · Robinson R22
Total Helicopter Service Robinson R22 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From M1V · Millville, NJ to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC90LA103
- 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 R22
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R22
- 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
- N9071Z
- Operator
- Total Helicopter Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From M1V · Millville, NJTo 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 · 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
- 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
- Dual student › Rotorcraft flight controls, improper use of
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Millville, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A PRACTICE HOVER WITH THE STUDENT AT THE CONTROLS,THE STUDENT STARTED A RAPID AFT CYCLIC MOVEMENT, CAUSING THE TAIL ROTOR TO CONTACT THE GROUND AND SEPARATE. THE INSTRUCTOR (CFI) TOOK CONTROL AND INITIATED A HOVER AUTOROTATION AND THE AIRCRAFT LIFTED ABOUT 10 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND. THE HELICOPTER THEN STRUCK THE GROUND RIGHT SKID LOW AND CAME TO REST IN A RELATIVE LEVEL ATTITUDE WITH THE RIGHT SKID COLLAPSING AND THE CRAFT ROLLING TO THE RIGHT SIDE. THE CFI WAS ISSUED HIS INSTRUCTOR CERTIFICATE 7 DAYS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE STUDENT HAD ONLY 4.8 HOURS OF EXPERIENCE.
Probable cause
THE STUDENT PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF THE FLIGHT CONTROLS, AND INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE FLIGHT BY THE INSTRUCTOR (CFI). CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LACK OF TOTAL TIME AND EXPERIENCE OF BOTH THE STUDENT AND INSTRUCTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC90LA103
- Event ID
- 20001212X23262
- Case number
- NYC90LA103
- 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: 0b1c706dfa7f5f4bbbd3d0044adc7873a43888700f594d92dd053598d41f41be; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:20:06.948Z.