FTW89LA120 · Robinson R22
Robinson R22 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From 3R3 · Austin, TX to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW89LA120
- 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
- N888CG
- Operator
- Alan Smith
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 3R3 · Austin, TXTo 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
- 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Adequate rotor RPM, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PLT, THE HELICOPTER WAS AT ABOUT 300' & 30 KTS, WHEN THE 'LOW RPM' LIGHT & HORN WERE ACTIVATED. HE LOWERED THE COLLECTIVE & APPLIED THROTTLE, BUT SAID THERE WAS NO INCREASE IN POWER. ALSO, HE NOTED THAT THE 'ENGINE AND RPM WERE DOWN TO 70-80% AND STILL MARRIED. SUBSEQUENTLY, HE REALIZED THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT ALT TO RECOVER AND APPLIED FULL COLLECTIVE AS THE HELICOPTER HIT THE TOPS OF TREES. ADDITIONALLY, HE SAID THAT AT NO TIME DID THE OIL PRESSURE OR ALTERNATOR LIGHT ILLUMINATE. APRX 15 MI ESE AT AUSTIN, THE 1550 CDT WIND WAS FROM 170 DEG AT 15 GUSTING 20 KTS & THE TEMP WAS 96 DEG. AT THE TIME OF THE EVENT, THE HELICOPTER RPRTDLY HAD A TAILWIND.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER INFLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION, WHICH RESULTED IN A SITUATION WHERE HE WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE ROTOR RPM. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: HIGH TEMPERATURE, TAILWIND, AND TREES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW89LA120
- Event ID
- 20001213X28832
- Case number
- FTW89LA120
- 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: 2f0ae0d900f2c7aceb41a500cb93da0898a8d305411ab7a438aaf5623f32ec38; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:09:35.626Z.