LAX04CA321 · Robinson R22 Beta
Hawaii Pacific Aviation Robinson R22 Beta · Accident: hard landing
From Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole (KOA) to Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole (KOA)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04CA321
- 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
- N22XM
- Operator
- Hawaii Pacific Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole (KOA), Kona, HITo Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole (KOA), Kona, HI
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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(cfi) › Airspeed, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Flare, 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 helicopter experienced a hard landing, resulting in the main rotor blades severing the tail boom. While the certified flight instructor (CFI) and student pilot were executing a practice autorotation, the main rotor low revolutions per minute horn began to sound. He also realized that the airspeed had decreased 10 knots below the minimum speed for autorotations. The CFI lowered the collective while pushing the carburetor heat control knob in the "off" position. As the CFI leaned forward to assess the knob position, he felt the helicopter begin to settle. With the ground approaching quickly, he configured the helicopter it in a level attitude, fearing that if he flared, the tail boom would contact the surface first. The helicopter hit the surface hard and the main rotor severed the tail boom. The CFI stated that he did not know of any mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter prior to impact.
Probable cause
the CFI's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed and main rotor rpm, and his improper flare, which resulted in a hard landing. A factor in the accident was the CFI's diverted attention.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04CA321
- Event ID
- 20041005X01572
- Case number
- LAX04CA321
- 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 2004-09-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 512be974bbdd25c0b5cfdfe47a1e7562976de5732841e6e112f82e7b3a05d1f6; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:42:31.864Z.