NYC04FA197 · Robinson R-22
Helicopter Flight Training Robinson R-22 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) to Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC04FA197
- 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
- 2 · 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
- N871CL
- Operator
- Helicopter Flight Training
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP), Islip, NYTo Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP)
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Flightcrew › Maneuver, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor and the pilot departed on an instructional flight, and about 45 minutes later, witnesses observed the helicopter flying along a beach between 100 and 200 feet agl. One witness reported that the helicopter contacted a kite. Immediately thereafter, witnesses heard a loud "cracking" or "popping" noise, and the main rotor separated. The helicopter subsequently entered an uncontrolled descent and impacted the water. Examination of the main rotor mast fracture surfaces revealed signatures consistent with overload. The cockpit also exhibited damage consistent with main rotor contact. No evidence of any pre-impact mechanical malfunction or failure was noted. According to the pilot's operating handbook for the helicopter, "Pushing the cyclic forward following a pull-up or rapid climb, or even from level flight, produces a low-G (weightless) flight condition..." and "...mast bumping can occur. Severe in-flight mast bumping usually results in main rotor shaft separation and/or rotor blade contact with the fuselage."
Probable cause
An improper maneuver by the flightcrew while attempting to avoid a kite, which resulted in mast bumping, the separation of the main rotor system, and a subsequent uncontrolled descent into water.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC04FA197
- Event ID
- 20040913X01406
- Case number
- NYC04FA197
- 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: a9de8b5ef1f753f1235516875b61380d2dfc5be545d93f7a106ad5aecd30868d; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:21:35.205Z.