NYC87FA160 · Robinson R22 MARINER R22 MARINE
No.East Helicopters Robinson R22 MARINER R22 MARINE · Accident: loss of control in flight
From Ellington, CT to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC87FA160
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Robinson R22 MARINER R22 MARINE
- 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
- N2287L
- Operator
- No.East Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ellington, CTTo 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of South Windsor, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT & FLT INSTRUCTOR (CFI) TOOK OFF ON A TRAINING FLT IN A ROBINSON R22 MARINER (FLOAT EQUIPPED) HELICOPTER. DRG THE RETURN FLT FM A PRACTICE AREA, THE HELICOPTER CRASHED. BFR THE ACDNT, 2 WITNESSES HEARD THE HELICOPTER, BUT DID NOT SEE IT UNTIL AFTER THEY HEARD AN UNUSUAL NOISE. ONE WITNESS SAID HE 'HEARD A LOUD PING, LIKE METAL AGAINST METAL.' AT ABOUT THAT TIME, BOTH WITNESSES NOTED AN INTERUPTION IN ENG PWR & SAW PIECES COMING OFF THE HELICOPTER AS IT FELL TO THE GND. IT CRASHED IN AN INVERTED ATTITUDE & BURNED. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES HAD STRUCK THE TAIL BOOM & THE ENTIRE TAIL ASSEMBLY (INCLUDING STABILIZERS, TAIL ROTOR GEAR BOX & TAIL ROTOR) HAD SEPD. THE TAIL ASSEMBLY FELL TO THE GND APRX 250' FM THE MAIN WRECKAGE. NO PRE-EXISTING MECH PROBLEMS OR SEVERE MAST BUMPING WERE EVIDENT. THE CFI HAD 451 HRS OF FLT TIME, ALL IN R22 HELICOPTERS. IN THE PREV 5 DAYS, HE HAD FLOWN 2 HRS IN FLOAT EQUIPPED (MARINER) R22'S & HAD MADE WATER LANDINGS, BUT NO INSTRUCTION IN THE MARINER OR ITS DIFFERENCES WAS VERIFIED.
Probable cause
A LOSS OF CONTROL IN FLIGHT FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC87FA160
- Event ID
- 20001213X31293
- Case number
- NYC87FA160
- 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: 7e0b0113a397cb3c899477093c666d242ac55c9a0918745ae216154844a71d97; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:07:26.340Z.