DFW08LA017 · Robinson R-22
Robinson R-22 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Acadiana Regional Airport (ARA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW08LA017
- 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 R-22
- 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
- N92HS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Acadiana Regional Airport (ARA), New Iberia, LATo 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
- 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
- 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 › Rotor RPM, not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot, who was flying the single-engine helicopter, and his flight instructor departed Runway 16 and climbed to an altitude of 300 feet before initiating a left hand turn. Both pilots stated that during the turn, the nose of the helicopter made an uncommanded yaw to the left and the low-rotor RPM horn sounded and the caution light illuminated. In response, the instructor took control of the helicopter and immediately lowered the collective, "rolled on the throttle," and applied right anti-torque pedal to counteract the left yaw. When the helicopter was approximately 20 to 40-feet above the ground, the instructor executed an autorotation to a sugarcane field and landed perpendicular to the rows. The front skids dug into a row and the helicopter rolled on to its side separating the tailboom and left skid. Examination of the helicopter and engine did not reveal any pre mishap deficiencies or anomalies. Weather reported at the airport included wind from 210 degrees at 10 knots, visibility 10 statute miles, and a few clouds at 1,500 feet.
Probable cause
The private pilot's failure to maintain main rotor rpm, which resulted in a hard landing and subsequent rollover. Also causal was the flight instructor's delayed remedial action. A factor was the lack of suitable terrain the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW08LA017
- Event ID
- 20071203X01888
- Case number
- DFW08LA017
- 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: 4bf7c0c2464ab32d3ee1c4098a055e31f2036d48f4848e09bd3c2b6190f61f1a; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:20:05.901Z.