LAX89LA028 · Robinson R22
Resort Aviation Robinson R22 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather
From 209 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA028
- 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
- Unknown
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
- N2627K
- Operator
- Resort Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 209To 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
- Unknown
- 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 encounter with weather
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A LOCAL SOLO INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT, THE HELICOPTER COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN IN AN OPEN FIELD APRX 3 MILES FROM THE AIRPORT. IT WAS REPORTED TO HAVE CONTACTED THE GROUND AT CONSIDERABLE DOWNWARD SPEED WITH HIGH ROTOR RPM. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND DURING THE INVESTIGATION. THE OPERATOR ESTIMATED THERE WAS A 600 TO 700 FT OVERCAST WITH 2 TO 3 MILES VISIBILITY AND FOG. ALSO, HE REPORTED THE STUDENT HAD BEEN INSTRUCTED TO REMAIN IN THE PATTERN TO PRACTICE LANDINGS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA028
- Event ID
- 20001213X27101
- Case number
- LAX89LA028
- 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: 78a4076613d6775e00571b083b3af39869f34c275a06c1ec38354229510eca1e; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:30:20.261Z.