NYC86FA127 · Robinson R-22A
Robinson R-22A · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Dutchess County Airport (POU) to Danbury Municipal Airport (DXR)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC86FA127
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Robinson R-22A
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R-22
- 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
- N8511Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dutchess County Airport (POU), Poughkeepsie, NYTo Danbury Municipal Airport (DXR), Danbury, CT
- 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
- 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 · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER DEPARTURE, ANOTHER PILOT ADVISED N8511Z THAT A COWL DOOR WAS OPEN. THE PILOT ACKNOWLEDGED, BUT CONTINUED THE FLIGHT. DURING THE VFR FLIGHT, WITNESSES HEARD A LOUD POP & OBSERVED THE R22 HELICOPTER BREAK APART IN FLIGHT. ONE WITNESS OBSERVED A LIGHT AIRPLANE TRAVELING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION AT THE SAME TIME. THE TAIL BOOM WAS THE FIRST PIECE OF THE HELICOPTER FOUND ALONG THE 584' LONG WRECKAGE PATH. THE MAIN ROTOR SEPARATED FROM ITS DRIVE SHAFT & THERE WERE MULTIPLE STRIKES TO THE TAIL BOOM. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE MAIN ROTOR HEAD COMPONENTS & EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE THAT COULD HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE MAIN ROTOR BLADE DIVERGING & STRIKING THE TAIL BOOM, RESULTING IN THE IN-FLIGHT SEPARATION OF THE TAIL BOOM. EXAMINATION OF THE RIGHT COLLECTIVE CONTROL TUBE REVEALED A FATIGUE FRACTURE IN THE INBOARD WALL OF THE TUBE WHERE IT IS NORMALLY LIGHTLY LOADED. THE EVIDENCE DID NOT SUPPORT A CONCLUSION THAT THIS WAS RELATED TO LOSS OF MAIN ROTOR CONTROL.
Probable cause
A LOSS OF CONTROL IN FLIGHT FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC86FA127
- Event ID
- 20001213X33670
- Case number
- NYC86FA127
- 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: 57c0193496c1533c7affae5f130560082ebfcd2c7201e0603986d38bf2156520; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:35:11.125Z.