BFO87FA022 · Robinson R22
Steven Phillips Helicopters Robinson R22 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Hagerstown Regional Richard A Henson Field (HGR) to W32 · Clinton, MD
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO87FA022
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument 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
- N9073Y
- Operator
- Steven Phillips Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hagerstown Regional Richard A Henson Field (HGR), Hagerstown, MDTo W32 · Clinton, MD
- 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
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED COMMERCIAL PILOT DEPARTED HGR IN A ROBINSON HELICOPTER THAT WAS NOT EQUIPPED TO FLY IN INSTRUMENT CONDITIONS. THE PILOT HAD NOT LOGGED ANY INSTRUMENT TIME AND ELECTED TO DEPART IN IFR CONDITIONS UNDER A SPECIAL VFR CLEARANCE. ATC TRANSCRIPTS OF THE HGR TOWER REVEALED THAT THE PILOT INTENDED TO FLY ALONG INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS LEADING BACK TO THE WASHINGTON AREA. THE WRECKAGE WAS LOCATED ON THE EAST SIDE OF INTERSTATE 70 AT A POINT WHERE IT TURNED SOUTH TO GO OVER A RIDGELINE. A WEATHER STUDY INDICATED THAT MOUNTAIN RIDGES IN THE AREA WOULD HAVE BEEN OBSCURED BY FOG AND THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN LIGHT AND POSSIBLY MODERATE RIME ICING AT LOW ALTITUDES PARTICULARLY ON THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN RIDGES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO87FA022
- Event ID
- 20001213X30189
- Case number
- BFO87FA022
- 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: e31b3f63dcb5685138b34372d3d22367f6289df445d1b9aea0a25a3ff28ce7ca; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:13:54.492Z.