CHI03FA218 · Robinson R22-Beta
Morton Helicopters Robinson R22-Beta · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Bishop International Airport (FNT) to Oakland County International Airport (PTK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI03FA218
- 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
- N131MH
- Operator
- Morton Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bishop International Airport (FNT), Flint, MITo Oakland County International Airport (PTK), Waterford, MI
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 engine power
- 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 › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
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 sustained substantial damage during a run on landing to the grass infield of the Bishop International Airport (FNT), Flint, Michigan, after the pilot reported he was having difficulties with the helicopter's "vertical pitch" during climbout. The pilot reported that during climbout at about 200-300 feet agl and about 3,000 feet from the approach end of a 7,848 foot runway, the engine was not producing enough lift. The pilot chose to execute a run on landing to the grass infield instead of landing straight ahead on the remaining runway. The ground was rough and the helicopter cartwheeled during the run on landing. The air traffic controller had cleared the pilot to land wherever he needed to land. The helicopter had a total of 56.8 hours since new. The inspection of the airframe, flight controls, and drive train revealed no pre-existing anomalies that would have precluded normal operation of the helicopter. The engine was put on a test stand and an engine run was conducted. The engine met all the parameters specified in the Lycoming "Production Manual Engine Test Log." The pilot reported that he should have landed on the runway, but he landed on the grass because he did not know where the other aircraft was behind him. He reported that he did not want to be a problem, and if he was the only aircraft in the pattern he would have landed on the runway.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power for undetermined reasons, and the pilot's inadequate decision to land on an unsuitable area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI03FA218
- Event ID
- 20030724X01190
- Case number
- CHI03FA218
- 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: 4c7be860575e6a13c69d798fc63919958e1411e73b29c9df87c824e8e1083807; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:24:49.120Z.