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NYC02LA086 · Robinson R-22

20 Apr 2002 · Islip, NY, United States

Robinson R-22 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering

From Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) to Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC02LA086
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-22

Aircraft type
Robinson R-22
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
N8414H
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP), Islip, NYTo Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP)
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 · hover in ground effect
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(cfi) › Aircraft control, 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

While hovering into the wind at 5 to 10 feet agl, the instructor felt a gust of wind push the helicopter to the left and down. The helicopter impacted the ground, rolled onto its left side, and slid several feet before coming to a stop. The instructor was in the left seat and making approximately 70 percent of the control inputs at the time of the accident. The instructor reported he experience no preimpact failures or malfunctions with the helicopter. Examination of the helicopter also revealed no preimpact failures or malfunctions. A weather observation taken at the airport about 12 minutes after the accident recorded the weather as wind 280 degrees at 8 knots, visibility 10 miles, light rain, and thunderstorms in the vicinity of the airport.

Probable cause

The flight instructors failure to maintain aircraft control during a wind gust. A factor in the accident was a sudden gust of wind.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC02LA086
Event ID
20020429X00590
Case number
NYC02LA086
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: 6fdd37977d44332382175ee309765ae99b54af7a019a187d358cf0b59c46354d; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:40:05.463Z.