FTW02LA227 · Robinson R22 Beta
Robinson R22 Beta · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From El Paso International Airport (ELP) to Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02LA227
- 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
- N681MP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From El Paso International Airport (ELP), El Paso, TXTo Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF), Midland, TX
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Flare, delayed
- 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 3,053-hour pilot reported that he was ferrying the helicopter to its new owner. The pilot stated that while in cruise flight, at 1,000 feet AGL, the helicopter's clutch light flickered then went out. Approximately one minute later, the clutch light flickered again and went out. The pilot elected to land the helicopter. The pilot entered an autorotation, slowed the aircraft to 65 knots, and made a 180-degree left turn. After the helicopter stopped its turn, and as it descended to approximately 200 feet AGL, the helicopter encountered a "high sink rate." As the helicopter descended through 150 feet AGL, the pilot rolled on throttle, rejoined the needles, and increased collective pitch. The aircraft continued to descend abnormally, and the pilot stated the airspeed was 60 knots. The pilot further increased collective, and by 50 feet AGL, the helicopter began to "shudder." The pilot began to flare the aircraft, and it touched down "hard," bounced, and touched down again. The left landing skid folded out and up, and the helicopter slid approximately 30 to 40 feet before coming to rest on its right side. Examination of the clutch assembly, actuator assembly, and Vee belts revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain rotor RPM and his improper landing flare. A contributing factor was the activation of a warning light.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02LA227
- Event ID
- 20020806X01311
- Case number
- FTW02LA227
- 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: e568527338b07db4f0943b4783d41e7e94c9b492c923c661f799abd06e275fa2; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:39:14.819Z.