FTW02LA026 · Robinson R22 Beta II
Robinson R22 Beta II · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Redrock, NM to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02LA026
- 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 II
- 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
- N8373T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Redrock, NMTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Clearance, 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 helicopter was being utilized for a cattle roundup. The helicopter departed the cattle pens to the east-northeast toward a draw, which leads into a canyon from the cattle pens. The elevation was approximately 5,000 feet at the cattle pens with an upslope greater than 15 degrees toward the canyon. The wind in the canyon was from the south-southwest at 10 mph gusting to 15 mph, with a temperature of 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit. The helicopter impacted the upslope of the canyon about 100 feet below the ridge at an elevation of 5,080 feet. Physical deformation of the main rotor blades was consistent with tree impact along the leading edges. The pilot had accumulated 695.4 hours of flight time in the accident make and model aircraft. Examination of the wreckage revealed no evidence of pre-impact flight control malfunction or airframe or system failure. The helicopter was found to be within weight and balance limits. The density altitude was calculated at 7,346 feet at the time of the accident. At the calculated gross weight of 1,292 pounds, the maximum altitude to hover out of ground effect (OGE) is 5,200 feet, and the maximum altitude to hover in ground effect (IGE) is 9,200 feet.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance with terrain. Contributing factors were the mountainous terrain and high density altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02LA026
- Event ID
- 20011107X02208
- Case number
- FTW02LA026
- 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: 0467f167392d1b44cddac1095a08a442ce77eef3d55eba841804d3a64bf7b7ec; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:45:10.348Z.