ANC02TA035 · Robinson R-44
Robinson R-44 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Denali National Park Airport (PAIN) to AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC02TA035
- 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
- Government
- 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-44
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R-44
- 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
- N344AK
- Operator
- U.S. Geological Survey
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Denali National Park Airport (PAIN), McKINLEY PARK, AKTo AK
- 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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 out of 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 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 › Rotor RPM, 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 commercial certificated helicopter pilot was conducting a VFR public use government flight to track caribou. The pilot was maneuvering a helicopter in an attempt to move radio-collared caribou out of an area of trees. Prior to beginning the maneuvering, the pilot said he conducted an out-of-ground-effect hover power check, and was satisfied with the helicopter's available power. He then began an out-of-ground-effect hover near several caribou. The pilot said that when he raised the collective control to move from his hover position, the low rotor annunciator sounded. He said he did not have sufficient power available to climb away from his position, and the helicopter began to settle toward the ground. One of the helicopter landing gear skids settled into low bushes, and the pilot was able to regain sufficient rotor RPM to move to a nearby landing area. After landing, the pilot found that one of the main rotor blades had a tear in the bottom surface of the blade surface. The other main rotor blade had several dents. The pilot determined the helicopter was not flyable. He said he did not feel any rotor contact with the trees.
Probable cause
A failure of the pilot-in-command to maintain adequate main rotor rpm during an out-of-ground-effect hover.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC02TA035
- Event ID
- 20020529X00755
- Case number
- ANC02TA035
- 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: a76166128b551078e8075d9a2f6f698b88f45a8832fd367f6c99dd67695c9c1a; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:19:09.946Z.