Classic Helicopter Robinson R44 II accident
Robinson R44 II · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Easton, WA to Smith Island, WA
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA07FA223
- 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
- 4 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
- N7531D
- Operator
- Classic Helicopter
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Easton, WATo Smith Island, WA
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Translational lift, not attained
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 was departing from a clear cut area in forested mountainous terrain at an elevation of 4,961 feet. A witness observed the helicopter lift off vertically, oriented in a southerly direction, to an altitude of about 40 feet before turning 90 degrees to the left and proceeding down the hillside to the east. The helicopter then began to sway back and forth after traveling about 100 to 150 feet, then it impacted the ground in a nose low, left bank attitude. The witness stated that the wind was switching around during the morning, and that it was blowing down slope toward the east at the time of the accident. The closest weather reporting facility, which was located 8 miles west of the accident site, reported winds gusting out of the west to 16 knots. No evidence of any preimpact anomalies were found during the post accident examination that would have precluded normal operation. During the accident flight the helicopter was being operated 77 pounds over the maximum gross weight for an Out of Ground Effect hover for the existing conditions. The helicopter was being operated in a high density altitude environment, which was computed to be 6,841 feet mean sea level.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper planning/decision in attempting a downwind takeoff under high density altitude conditions that resulted in a loss of control and impact with terrain. Contributing to the accident were the helicopter's gross weight in excess of the maximum hover out of ground effect limit, a high density altitude, and the gusty tailwind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA07FA223
- Event ID
- 20070808X01151
- Case number
- SEA07FA223
- 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: ca1756dfd0e0ee2e202cd010d815dceaa74dd80114ae0cf6fc36a578c7cffb20; retrieved 2026-09-18T12:54:52.157Z.