LAX06LA006 · Robinson Helicopter Company R-22 Beta II
Robinson Helicopter Company R-22 Beta II · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From D68 · Springerville, AZ to Chandler Municipal Airport (CHD)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06LA006
- 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 Helicopter Company R-22 Beta II
- 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
- N7196J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From D68 · Springerville, AZTo Chandler Municipal Airport (CHD), Chandler, AZ
- 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Aircraft performance, climb capability › Exceeded
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, 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 impacted trees and terrain on the north side of a mountain slope as it presumably attempted to clear the rising terrain. Witnesses at the departure airport reported that they observed the pilots conduct a flight plan and obtain a weather briefing. The pilots had 13 gallons of fuel added to the helicopter and mentioned that they did not want the fuel tanks topped off due to the elevation. Witnesses observed the helicopter lift off the ground and wobble from side-to-side. The helicopter then settled to the ground and one of the skids made ground contact. The helicopter spun around 180 degrees and the helicopter lifted back up into the air. During the 180-degree rotation, the main rotor blade narrowly missed contacting the ground. The helicopter then settled back to the ground, narrowly missing ground contact with the tail rotors. The helicopter sat on the ground idling for a while before it lifted off again. The witnesses then observed the helicopter takeoff and climb slowly toward the mountains situated to the southwest of the airport. One witness commented that the helicopter was not climbing all that well. Post-accident examination of the wreckage revealed no anomalies with the helicopter systems or engine that would have led to the accident. The density altitude at the accident site was calculated as 10,219 feet and the helicopter was near its maximum gross weight around the time of the accident. Both pilots were certificated to fly the helicopter and both had similar flight experience, but neither had flown the mountainous route before. Toxicology findings for the left seat pilot were consistent with recent use of diazepam.
Probable cause
The pilots' inadequate in-flight planning, which led the helicopter toward rising terrain in excess of the performance capability of the helicopter. Contributing factors were the high density altitude, and the rapidly rising terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06LA006
- Event ID
- 20051019X01693
- Case number
- LAX06LA006
- 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: 63700039ba69c8bff6a1b9dc9209c1499a0a2f496edb1fface698b3b57f9a878; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:49:19.596Z.