IAD05CA092 · Callahan Rotorway Exec 90
Callahan Rotorway Exec 90 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Horner, WV to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05CA092
- 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
Callahan Rotorway Exec 90
- Aircraft type
- Callahan ROTORWAY EXEC 90
- 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
- N4359N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Horner, WVTo not recorded
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
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 began an autorotation maneuver at 800 feet above ground level (agl), and upon reaching 100 feet agl began to flare the helicopter. When the helicopter's forward speed had reduced to almost zero, the pilot leveled its pitch attitude, and applied full throttle and right anti-torque pedal. The helicopter turned to the right, and due to a perceived lack of torque, the pilot believed that the engine had experienced a loss of power. He applied left anti-torque pedal to straighten the helicopter, and decreased the collective pitch in order to increase rotor rpm. He then increased the collective pitch to cushion the landing, but the helicopter impacted the ground hard and the skids collapsed outward. A post crash fire ensued and consumed nearly the entire helicopter. When asked, the pilot could not recall any engine or rotor instrument indications during the autorotation, and could not recall if the engine was running when the helicopter impacted the ground. Examination of the wreckage revealed no anomalies with the engine or the airframe.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power for undetermined reasons during an attempted power recovery. A factor in the accident was the pilot's failure to maintain rotor rpm, which resulted in a hard landing and subsequent post crash fire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05CA092
- Event ID
- 20050719X01060
- Case number
- IAD05CA092
- 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: dd68d999806135d4873eff32838149e98040c949ceda65f982e9b84cebcd675f; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:40:55.719Z.