NYC83FA052 · Robinson R22
Robinson R22 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Ellington Airport (7B9) to Igor I Sikorsky Memorial Airport (BDR)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC83FA052
- 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
- N9017Y
- Operator
- Kelaire
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ellington Airport (7B9), Ellington, CTTo Igor I Sikorsky Memorial Airport (BDR), Stratford, 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 engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Milford, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER COLLIDED WITH A TELEPHONE POLE DURING AN AUTOROTATION FORCED LANDING AFTER AN ENGINE MALFUNCTION. THE AIRCRAFT WAS CRUISING AT 500 FEET WHEN THERE WAS AN AUDIBLE DECREASE IN MAIN ROTOR AND ENGINE RPM. THE ROTOR RPM WAS BETWEEN 80-85 PERCENT WHEN THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT TOOK CONTROL FROM THE STUDENT. DURING AN AUTOROTATIVE LANDING, THE INSTRUCTOR MANEUVERED TO AVOID WIRES WHILE LANDING ON A DOWNHILL STREET, AWAY FROM AUTOMOBILE TRAFFIC. THE AUTOROTATION WAS ALMOST COMPLETE WHEN THE ROTOR STRUCK A TELEPHONE POLE AND ROLLED THE AIRCRAFT ON ITS SIDE. THE LOW RPM WARNING HORN AND CAUTION LIGHT DID NOT WORK AS PROGRAMMED. THE BATTERY TERMINAL WERE FOUND CORRODED AND THE BATTERY VOLTAGE WAS FOUND TO BE LOW. ELECTRICAL WIRE #19 WAS FOUND DISCONNECTED FROM THE ALTERNATOR SWITCH WHERE THE WIRE HAD BEEN SOLDERED TO THE SWITCH. AN EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE SOLDER ADHESION WAS GOOD, BUT THE WIRE HAD NOT BEEN PASSED THRU THE TERMINAL POST & WRAPPED BEFORE IT WAS SOLDERED. NO OTHER PREIMPACT MALFUNCTIONS OR FAILURES WERE FOUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC83FA052
- Event ID
- 20001214X42073
- Case number
- NYC83FA052
- 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: e6654c5c5d3fab3361df8076e5509d3bc7700fa83fc8469ac909865b99e5b90e; retrieved 2026-09-23T23:31:17.319Z.