CHI04LA079 · Robinson R44
Robinson R44 · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From Burlington Municipal Airport (BUU) to Grand Geneva Resort Airport (C02)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04LA079
- 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 R44
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R44
- 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
- N7184G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Burlington Municipal Airport (BUU), Burlington Muni, WITo Grand Geneva Resort Airport (C02), Lake Geneva, WI
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Wire, transmission; Pole
- 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 › Clearance, not obtained/maintained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
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 when it impacted the ground after contacting a power line and pole during takeoff. The pilot's accident report stated, "I cleared the area did a slow vertical liftoff and a left pedal turn. I was instantly in the wires which were [approximately] 10-12 [feet] north of depot and [approximately] 14-15 [feet] high. Obviously I didn't see the wires and have never seen wires that close to a fuel depot. ... The tail rotor got in the wires first and actually 'reeled' me backwards into the pole. Then the main rotor made contact. Then we hit the ground. It took me a few seconds to kill the engine as we were being bounced around so violently." His safety recommendation was, "The wires should at the very least been marked or identified in some way. (sign, placard) Most importantly they shouldn't have been so close to fuel depot 15-20 [feet] or so low. They should have been underground."
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate visual lookout and his failure to obtain/maintain clearance from the transmission wire during the takeoff. Factors contributing to the accident were the transmission wire and the pole.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04LA079
- Event ID
- 20040303X00259
- Case number
- CHI04LA079
- 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: b7d3650f6553169626860ed1e3374c9d9f8131de25660fa5b917343eb1544ea9; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:54:45.525Z.