LAX06FA104 · Robinson R44 II
Robinson R44 II · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Minden-Tahoe Airport (MEV) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06FA104
- 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
- 1 · 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 II
- 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
- N447SH
- Operator
- Patrick Samal
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Minden-Tahoe Airport (MEV), Minden, NVTo 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 · cruise
- 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
- Rotor system, main rotor › Diverged
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a short-distance positioning flight, the helicopter descended uncontrolled into terrain about 5 minutes after departure. There was evidence that the main rotor diverged from its normal plane of rotation and severed the tailboom. Review of the pilot's personal flight logbooks showed that he had over 500 hours of flight time in helicopters. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident with light winds and clear sky conditions. Examination of the wreckage showed that the fuel control return fuel line B-nut was not threaded to the fuel control fitting assembly and was melted. Metallurgical examination could not ascertain whether or not the B-nut was secured to the fuel control prior to the accident.
Probable cause
The divergence of the main rotor from its normal plane of rotation for an undetermined reason, which resulted in main rotor/tail boom contact and loss of control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06FA104
- Event ID
- 20060209X00187
- Case number
- LAX06FA104
- 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: a0b11559ae5b3ccfe4aaac0a33584008b4dae5798df630f711679ec9afbf4855; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:32:53.696Z.