SEA01LA054 · Robinson R22
Classic Helicopter Robinson R22 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing
From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA01LA054
- 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 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
- N8362Q
- Operator
- Classic Helicopter
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, WATo 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Flightcrew › Proper descent rate, exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilots attempted a 180-degree autorotation to touchdown from an entry airspeed of 70 knots and entry altitude of 300 feet above ground level (AGL). The instructor reported that halfway around the 180-degree turn, the helicopter's airspeed was 65 knots indicated airspeed (KIAS) (the airspeed specified by the R22 Pilot's Operating Handbook for maximum glide distance), with rotor RPM in the normal operating range. The trainee reported that after establishing the proper turn rate, he noted that rotor RPM was in the normal range, but that the helicopter's airspeed had slowed to about 50 knots. The trainee reported that "Not more than a second later", he noted that "the rate of descent appeared to be higher than normal and the ground closer than expected" (the instructor reported he noted the rate of descent was "greater than normal for our proximity to the ground...[as] we were about to roll out of the turn.") The pilots reported that they attempted to recover, but that the helicopter then struck the ground and rolled onto its right side. No evidence of any pre-impact mechanical problems with the helicopter was found during post-accident examination.
Probable cause
Both pilots' exceedance of the proper descent rate during the autorotative descent. Factors included the helicopter's low altitude at maneuver initiation, the failure of both pilots to maintain the proper airspeed during the descent, and both pilots' delay in initiating remedial action.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA01LA054
- Event ID
- 20010307X00555
- Case number
- SEA01LA054
- 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: a4092b8163cc036cb192f698ba89fca781c7fc7a68c42f3e1ea88269bcc2e9ff; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:00:34.034Z.