CHI05CA066 · Robinson R44
H & K Builders Robinson R44 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Sullivan Airport (W11) to Anoka County-Blaine (Janes Field) Airport (ANE)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI05CA066
- 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
- N7091C
- Operator
- H & K Builders
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sullivan Airport (W11), Menomonie, WITo Anoka County-Blaine (Janes Field) Airport (ANE), Anoka, MN
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, 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 rolled over following a loss of control while maneuvering. The pilot reported he was landing on a cart when the accident occurred. He reported the helicopter touched down, and he was attempting to raise the helicopter to center it on the cart, when a gust of wind caused the helicopter to roll to the right. The right skid contacted the ground and the helicopter came to rest on its right side. The pilot stated the cart is approximately 6 to 8 inches high. He also stated that when the helicopter is centered on the cart there is approximately 1 foot of clearance between the outside of each skid and the edge of the cart. The local winds reported at ANE at the time of the accident were from 160 degrees at 16 knots gusting to 23 knots. The airport manager reported that helicopters are prohibited from hover taxiing between the hangars on the airport. The pilot reported they land the helicopter on a cart which they then tow into the hangar using an all terrain type vehicle.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate compensation for the wind conditions and his failure to maintain control of the helicopter while maneuvering to center the helicopter on a cart. A factor associated with the accident was the wind gusts.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI05CA066
- Event ID
- 20050217X00205
- Case number
- CHI05CA066
- 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: c23d072f1b447a0cd41016aef5dc4634b6f567d0fc74acbdafea296e55513fa5; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:17:42.437Z.