MIA04LA061 · Robinson R44
Robinson R44 · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From Ocala International Airport - Jim Taylor Field (KOCF) to Ocala International Airport - Jim Taylor Field (KOCF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA04LA061
- 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
- N7194S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ocala International Airport - Jim Taylor Field (KOCF), Ocala, FLTo Ocala International Airport - Jim Taylor Field (KOCF), Ocala, FL
- 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 · hover
- 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 › Aircraft control, 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 pilot stated that after lifting off a platform to a 3-5 foot hover with all engine indications in the green and the governor on, the engine experienced a loss of power and began descending. The helicopter had drifted to the left a bit off the dolly and one of the skids contacted the dolly and the helicopter rolled onto its left side but came to rest on its right side. The pilot had the helicopter recovered and placed back in his hangar before NTSB or FAA notification. Numerous attempts were made by the NTSB investigator-in-charge to gain access to the hangar for the purpose of removing the engine from the helicopter for an attempted engine run; the pilot/owner did not respond to these attempts. Review of the NTSB Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report form submitted by the pilot revealed that the yes and no blocks were marked in the area titled, "Mechanical Malfunction Failure." According to a preliminary police report, after being notified by an anonymous phone call, they arrived at the airport, opened the hangar, and noted the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from inside the helicopter. Examination of the helicopter while it was in the hangar was performed by an FAA airworthiness inspector. The inspector reported that the helicopter sustained substantial damage.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to maintain control of the helicopter following a reported loss of engine power after picking up to a hover from a dolly.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA04LA061
- Event ID
- 20040329X00379
- Case number
- MIA04LA061
- 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: 2809a1cc2d6ec2c4759e79a9812914cbd66e3ef8044232a5d467025aaaddb5ef; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:51:30.994Z.