NYC02LA186 · Robinson R-22B
Robinson R-22B · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Russell County Airport (K24) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC02LA186
- 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-22B
- 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
- N707RG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Russell County Airport (K24), Jamestown, KYTo 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 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 › Proper descent rate, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, low
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 by a photographer to take pictures of boats during a race conducted on a lake. According to the pilot, the helicopter was about 200 feet above the lake, when he spotted a boat that was not previously photographed. The pilot made a left turn and began a descent to keep pace with the boat. The pilot further stated "...I noticed an abnormal sink rate and put in aft cyclic. The rate did not arrest, so I brought in more aft cyclic along with collective power. As I came into about 50 to 100 feet agl, I heard a low RPM warning horn. I continued to slow the [helicopter], while rolling on throttle. The descent rate brought the [helicopter] in contact with the water." The helicopter sank and came to rest at a depth of about 115 feet. It was not recovered.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain the proper descent rate, which resulted in low rotor rpm and a collision with water.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC02LA186
- Event ID
- 20020924X05205
- Case number
- NYC02LA186
- 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: 6212f8cd3060a8855be8e3efb3a024feb8d4005a7f84a2d4c534c49c9f3c6214; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:18:57.746Z.