LAX86LA219 · Robinson R22
Robinson R22 · Accident en route
From Tucson International Airport (TUS) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA219
- 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
- N9072Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tucson International Airport (TUS), Tucson, AZTo 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 · descent
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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(cfi) › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER LANDED HARD AFTER A PRACTICE AUTOROTATION WITH A POWER RECOVERY. AT APRX 550 FT AGL THE CFI ANNOUNCED A SIMULATED ENG FAILURE TO THE ATP AND THE THROTTLE WAS CLOSED TO FLIGHT IDLE. THE ATP ENTERED AN AUTOROTATION SMOOTHLY AND TURNED LEFT RAPIDLY INTO THE WIND. DURING THE TURN THE ROTOR RPM BEGAN TO INCREASE AND THE CFI INCREASED THE COLLECTIVE TO MAINTAIN ROTOR RPM WITHIN LIMITS AND THEN REDUCED IT. THE THE ATP BEGAN TO DECELERATE AT 300 FT AGL AND AIRSPEED BEGAN TO DECREASE. AT 55 KTS INDICATED AIRSPEED, THE CFI CALLED FOR A POWER RECOVERY. THE ROTOR RPM BEGAN TO DECREASE AND THE CFI GOT ON THE CONTROLS AND ATTEMPTED TO EXECUTE A POWER RECOVERY. THE ATP HAD A TIGHT GRIP ON THE THROTTLE IN THE OVERRIDE POSITION. THE CFI WAS UNABLE TO TWIST THE THROTTLE TO THE POSITIVE RANGE POSITION. AT 100 FT AGL THE CFI NOTICED LOW ROTOR RPM AND AN EXCESSIVE RATE OF DESCENT. THE CFI FLARED THE ACFT AND ATTEMPTED TO CUSHION THE LANDING BUT THE ACFT LANDED HARD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA219
- Event ID
- 20001213X33599
- Case number
- LAX86LA219
- 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: 4170e50e98fb4ffef39993f2394a37f7e67c9d9d49224dd268cf0681c72d33a2; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:26:10.473Z.