NYC08LA060 · Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA
Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Lakeland Linder International Airport (LAL) to Plant City Municipal Airport (PCM)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08LA060
- 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 Helicopter 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
- N7188J
- Operator
- Tim Bias
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lakeland Linder International Airport (LAL), Lakeland, FLTo Plant City Municipal Airport (PCM), Plant City, FL
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 drive system, main rotor drive belt › Disconnected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Shortly after departure, the pilot noted that more than "usual" forward cyclic and collective application was required to maintain the helicopter's desired airspeed, but that a scan of the instruments assured him that "All was okay." While cruising at 700 feet, and 70 knots, the pilot detected a strong odor of burning rubber, a loss of power, illumination of the clutch warning light, and yawing of the helicopter. The pilot entered autorotation, turned to a "dark, open area," and descended into trees. Examination of the helicopter at the scene revealed that the drive belts were twisted, torn, and off of their respective pulleys. Examination and testing revealed that the clutch actuator functioned as designed, but the alignment of the drive belt sheaves and pulleys could not be determined due to impact damage. In a follow-up interview, the pilot stated that during engine start, 10 to 15 seconds transpired between the times that he actuated the clutch switch, and the main rotor blades turned. According to the pilot's operating handbook starting engine checklist, the rotor blades should turn less than 5 seconds after engagement of the clutch switch. According to a note in the manufacturer's maintenance manual, V-Belt Installation, "A delay of more than 5 seconds between clutch switch engagement and rotor turning indicates excessive slack."
Probable cause
A loss of rotor drive due to excessive slack and breakage of the drive belts. Contributing to the accident was the pilot departing in the helicopter after the rotor engagement time during engine start exceeded the time outlined in the pilot's operating handbook.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC08LA060
- Event ID
- 20080109X00033
- Case number
- NYC08LA060
- 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. 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: 4b0c5db0791e8cf0105d98e9164aa4a86008e1ace4ce9fee038104cec89843cc; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:20:55.708Z.