CHI05FA274 · Robinson R44
Robinson R44 · Accident: in flight collision with object
From Drummond, WI to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI05FA274
- 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
- 3 · 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
- N9158U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Drummond, WITo 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
- Unknown
- 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 object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not obtained/maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter was being operated for hire providing rides during a festival when it struck a power line over a lake. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. A witness stated that he heard the helicopter for approximately one minute and during that time he heard a pitch change, heard the revolutions per minute increase, and then heard the crash. The power line was at a height approximately equal to the height of the trees surrounding the lake. According to the operator, no safety briefings were given to ride passengers and the helicopter was not shut down when passengers were loaded and unloaded. A previous ride passenger stated that when he arrived on the morning of the accident, there was no safe area delineated around the helicopter and no safety briefing given. This witness stated that the engine was running when the pilot got out of the helicopter in order to secure the passenger's seatbelts. There had been a written complaint regarding the operator when a witness saw the helicopter being operated in a "manner contrary to all safety guidelines outlined in the manufacturer's Safety Course and Special Federal Aviation Regulation 73.1." The owner of the company stated that after that they no longer provided a "wild" ride. Examination of the helicopter's flight control and propulsion system revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Examination of the helicopter’s seat belt buckles revealed fatigue fracture within the buckle, which was later addressed in a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin and the helicopter manufacturer's service bulletin.
Probable cause
Clearance not obtained/maintained by the pilot during an unknown phase of flight. Contributing factors were the improper use of procedures by the pilot, the inadequate surveillance of the operation by company/management, and the wire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI05FA274
- Event ID
- 20051003X01564
- Case number
- CHI05FA274
- 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. 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: d7d392d8fb66b744c75f7659a85e1315c01c77036bcd71b9112920bceab87ea9; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:52:35.828Z.