LAX02FA088 · Robinson R22 Beta
Universal Air Academy Robinson R22 Beta · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT) to San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX02FA088
- 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
- N8045K
- Operator
- Universal Air Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT), El Monte, CATo San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT)
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Rotor RPM, not maintained
- 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 rolled over following an autorotative landing on a sloped mountain side. According to the pilot's statements, during the flight, the student had failed to maintain adequate main rotor rpm while orbiting a mountain peak, and the helicopter entered a descent. The student relinquished the controls to the certified flight instructor (CFI); however, he was unsuccessful at restoring the requisite rpm, so he autorotated to a landing downsloping mountainous terrain. Thereafter, the helicopter rolled over. Neither pilot reported having heard the low rotor rpm warning horn, observed illumination of any annunciator light, or felt any unusual vibration. During the subsequent wreckage examination, the low rotor rpm warning systems were found functional. No evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunction was found with the airframe or drive system. The engine was run up to full power, and no malfunctions were noted. During the accident flight, the helicopter was operating near its maximum certificated gross weight and under a high density altitude (over 4,300 feet) condition.
Probable cause
The student's failure to maintain adequate main rotor rpm, and the flight instructor's inadequate supervision. Contributing factors were the high helicopter gross weight and density altitude, and the descending mountainous terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX02FA088
- Event ID
- 20020227X00274
- Case number
- LAX02FA088
- 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: 8317166e562b73fc6de1743ce7eb1e7a049d39cd432247caddd6a2caeafdfc83; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:06:51.723Z.