LAX07CA043 · Robinson R22 Beta
Twin Air Robinson R22 Beta · Accident: roll over during landing
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Van Nuys Airport (VNY)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX07CA043
- 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 R22 Beta
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R22
- 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
- N994HV
- Operator
- Twin Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Van Nuys Airport (VNY)
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Roll over
- 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
- Dual student › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Descent, not corrected
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, 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 onto its side while performing a practice autorotation. The instructor said he determined the direction of the wind by comparing the indicated airspeed to the global positioning satellite displayed speed, and by observing dust behind a tractor operating in a field below. Both indicators verified that the wind was from the east. After the student demonstrated several maneuvers, the instructor decided to have him practice autorotations. He again confirmed that the wind was from the east. The instructor and student positioned the helicopter facing into the direction they believed the wind was coming from and began a practice autorotation. The helicopter descended, and they began the flare portion of the maneuver about 40 feet above ground level (agl). Despite their control inputs (adding throttle and raising the collective), the helicopter continued the descent, and settled toward the ground. The aft portion of the skids first touched down on the sandy surface, and the helicopter continued forward with very little airspeed. It pivoted about the right skid, rolled over, and came to rest on its right side. The instructor reported that after egressing the helicopter, he noted the wind had changed directions in the midst of the practice autorotation and they had performed the autorotation with a tail wind. He noted no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter prior to impact. Another helicopter pilot, who was practicing in the vicinity, stated that he noticed a wind shift around the time of the accident.
Probable cause
the student pilot's inadequate compensation for wind conditions and the instructor's failure to arrest the descent, which resulted in a dynamic rollover. Also causal was the inadequate supervision by the instructor. A factor in the accident was the wind shift to a tail wind condition.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX07CA043
- Event ID
- 20061220X01820
- Case number
- LAX07CA043
- 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: 6cab638ceff2a435fe4526bfc088f6b4a3535e9c23cba5921f402f7e7bc5a885; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:13:12.158Z.