LAX01LA232 · Robinson R22 Beta
Sierra Academy of Aeronautics Robinson R22 Beta · Accident: hard landing
From Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK) to Hayward Executive Airport (HWD)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX01LA232
- 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 Beta
- 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
- N4052K
- Operator
- Sierra Academy of Aeronautics
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK), Oakland, CATo Hayward Executive Airport (HWD), Hayward, CA
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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
- Dual student › Proper descent rate, exceeded
- Flightcrew › Rotorcraft flight controls, improper use of
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter impacted the ground, bounced, and impacted the ground a second time during a practice autorotation. The commercial/student pilot was practicing a 180-degree autorotation with a power recovery when an excessive rate of descent developed. The flight instructor said he "joined" the student on the controls and initiated a progressive rollout of the turn while simultaneously applying aft cyclic, raising the collective, and applying more power for a power recovery to level flight. The instructor said that the engine did not respond to the throttle input. Due to the rate of descent, the flight instructor elected not to attempt an "aggressive" flare "fearing a tail rotor ground strike." He continued with aft cyclic input and collective manipulation to reduce forward airspeed and rate of descent for a run-on landing. The helicopter contacted the ground in a "near skids level attitude" approximately 30 knots, with the rotor rpm in the "high end of the green region." The helicopter became airborne approximately 8-10 feet above the ground. The flight instructor indicated that the throttle was still unresponsive. He raised the collective to cushion the second impact and the low rotor rpm warning light and horn came on prior to set down. The helicopter impacted the ground again approximately 20 knots, collapsing the left skid. The helicopter then rolled to the left and came to rest on its left side facing approximately 180 degrees from the approach heading. A post-accident examination of the helicopter revealed no anomalies, with the exception of a failed left seat restraining system. An engine test run was conducted and no anomalies were noted that would have affected its operation.
Probable cause
the student's excessive rate of descent during a practice autorotation, and, the inadequate use of the rotorcraft flight controls by both pilots during the attempted recovery, which resulted in a hard landing. The flight instructor's inadequate supervision during the maneuver was also causal.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX01LA232
- Event ID
- 20010712X01396
- Case number
- LAX01LA232
- 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: 3e448e31b2813260e5a6ecc83707dc014bd67bf2fcd012b6575e238d9d8d41c8; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:55:05.207Z.