SEA04CA149 · Robinson R-22
Silverhawk Aviation Academy Robinson R-22 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing
From Caldwell Executive Airport (EUL) to Boise Air Terminal/Gowen Field (BOI)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA04CA149
- 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-22
- 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
- N8356R
- Operator
- Silverhawk Aviation Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Caldwell Executive Airport (EUL), Caldwell, IDTo Boise Air Terminal/Gowen Field (BOI), Boise, ID
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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 › Flare, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During his first approach the pilot noted that it was a very dark night, and that there were some brightly shining "flood lights" in his eleven o'clock position while he was on short final for landing. Even though the flood lights were "limiting" his vision, his first landing was successful. After the first landing, the pilot hovered near the touchdown point for a few minutes, and then was cleared by the tower to proceed around the pattern for another landing. When the pilot was on short final for the second landing, while the helicopter was still about 50 feet above the ground, he saw the low rotor rpm light flicker. He therefore reduced collective and checked the rpm gage, which showed that both the engine and rotor rpm were where they should be. Soon thereafter the helicopter impacted the runway surface. The flickering of the warning light, along with the pilot's glance at the rpm gage, caused him to momentarily be distracted, and that, along with the effect of the food lights and the dark night, resulted in him not seeing the ground in time to initiate a landing flare.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to initiate a flare prior to contacting the ground while attempting to land the helicopter on a dark night. Factors include a distraction created by the flicker of a low rotor rpm light, the glare of nearby flood lights, and the lack of ambient illumination of the landing area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA04CA149
- Event ID
- 20040819X01261
- Case number
- SEA04CA149
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2004-07-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 64f6c06488553e2b8031272c913c2a032ee1a242e5db2149d635c5a91a1bde6b; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:57:26.437Z.