LAX90LA317 · Robinson R22A
Robinson R22A · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90LA317
- 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 R22A
- 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
- N85594
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 control in flight
- 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 › Adequate rotor RPM, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Altitude, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT PROVIDED HIS PASSENGER WITH A LOW ALTITUDE AERIAL SURVEY OF A RACE CAR ROUTE WHICH INVOLVED FLYING OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN BETWEEN 100 AND 150 ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. DURING THE FLIGHT THE HELICOPTER ENTERED AN AREA OF RAPIDLY RISING TERRAIN, AND THE LOW ROTOR RPM WARNING HORN SOUNDED. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE DID NOT IMMEDIATELY LOWER THE COLLECTIVE. HE STATED, HOWEVER, THAT HE ATTEMPTED TO REGAIN ROTOR RPM WHILE MANEUVERING THE HELICOPTER IN A LEFT TURN TO REVERSE COURSE. THE PILOT FURTHER INDICATED THAT THE HELICOPTER DID NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT ALTITUDE AND AIRSPEED SO HE ATTEMPTED TO LAND. THE PILOT ENTERED AN AUTOROTATIVE DESCENT. THE HELICOPTER TOUCHED DOWN HARD ON THE SLOPING TERRAIN AND ROLLED OVER. THE CRASH SITE'S ELEVATION WAS 6,300 FEET MSL. THE CALCULATED DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS AT LEAST 9,000 FEET.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S SELECTION OF AN INADEQUATE CRUISE ALTITUDE AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE ROTOR RPM. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS RELATED TO THE HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE, RISING TERRAIN, AND THE PILOT'S DELAYED AND IMPROPER USE OF THE COLLECTIVE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90LA317
- Event ID
- 20001212X24302
- Case number
- LAX90LA317
- 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: 222124d1e51be652277fa8d3eb9d0d862cacbac07fb935cee6148f6a93bb0d0e; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:36:48.826Z.