CHI07FA114 · Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II
Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Starke County Airport (KOXI) to Bass Lake, IN (private airstrip)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI07FA114
- 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 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
- N382BT
- Operator
- Bruce Allan Groen
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Starke County Airport (KOXI), Knox, INTo Bass Lake, IN (private airstrip)
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, improper
- Pilot in command › Settling with power, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter was en-route to the pilot's residence located on a lake. The accident occurred during a dark night in visual meteorological conditions. As the helicopter crossed the lake, it was observed descending steadily towards the water, hovering for about 1-2 seconds, then falling vertically from approximately 40-50 feet into the lake. The helicopter impacted the water about 1/4 mile from the intended landing area. The pilot and his passenger survived the impact, but died of hypothermia due to their prolonged exposure to cold lake water. The investigation revealed no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or anomalies that would have prevented the normal operation of the helicopter. Outside visual reference for airspeed and rate of closure may not be available at night, especially when approaching an unlighted landing area. A pilot's failure to monitor altitude, airspeed, and rate of descent during an approach can result in a settling-with-power condition. The helicopter's flight profile before impact was consistent with a settling-with-power flight condition.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain a proper approach glidepath, which resulted in a settling-with-power flight condition. Contributing to the accident was the dark night light condition.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI07FA114
- Event ID
- 20070430X00482
- Case number
- CHI07FA114
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2007-04-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 587764263df1db90e5c3732e81c6aed2cc6deff9f1cb0525e2c887d04f698d26; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:42:30.124Z.