ANC01TA035 · Robinson R-44
Robinson R-44 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Eureka, AK to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC01TA035
- 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
- Unknown
- 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-44
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R-44
- 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
- N7183P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eureka, AKTo 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Planned approach, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was transporting two search and rescue volunteers and their equipment to the scene of an avalanche in a float-equipped helicopter. A helicopter landing zone (heli spot) had been established the evening before the accident, near the toe of the avalanche. The heli spot had been used by a military helicopter, and was marked by small flags. The surface of the snow at the heli spot had been dusted by red powder. The pilot of the accident helicopter had not landed at the heli spot before. The heli spot was located at 5,300 feet msl, near the bottom of a small valley. The pilot began his landing approach toward the west. Although the weather conditions were clear, the pilot said the lighting conditions in the valley provided little contrast (flat light). The pilot said that as he began to add power near the termination of the landing approach, the low rotor warning horn sounded, and he noticed that the main rotor gauge was indicating 92 to 94 percent. He reduced collective pitch, ensured the throttle was full open, and began to initiate a go-around toward the west, an area of lower terrain. The helicopter continued to descend, and the right front portion of the landing gear float assembly contacted the snow. About the same time, the main rotor contacted the slope of a small, snow-covered hill, to the right of the helicopter. The helicopter then rolled onto its right side. After the accident, the pilot said he noted that the wind was blowing about 8 knots from the east.
Probable cause
The pilot's collision with terrain due to his inadequate planning of the approach, and his failure to maintain the helicopter's main rotor RPM during a go-around. Factors in the accident were a tailwind, flat lighting conditions, and snow-covered terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC01TA035
- Event ID
- 20010221X00484
- Case number
- ANC01TA035
- 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, coordinates. 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: add672262594b4ca1ea3441704fd2dd6539b735d05f7a978951a0b13177d7c5f; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:11:07.575Z.