LAX08WA045 · Robinson R-44
Helicopter Flight Centre Robinson R-44 · Accident
From Westgate Bridge to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's registration. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX08WA045
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- API-reported fatalities
- 1 · 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-44
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R-44
- 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
- VH-MEB Narrative disagrees
- Operator
- Helicopter Flight Centre
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Westgate BridgeTo 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
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- 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
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe 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
- Not recorded
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On December 29, 2007, at 1908 local time, a Robinson R-44, Australian registry VH-MEB, impacted the Yarra River shortly after takeoff near Westgate Bridge, Victoria, Australia. The helicopter was operated by Helicopter Flight Center. The instructor pilot was fatally injured and the pilot under instruction was seriously injured; the helicopter was destroyed.
The Australian Transportation Safety Bureau reported that the helicopter took off with a reported 20-25 knot quartering tail wind; at 50 feet agl the helicopter was observed attempting to turn back to the helipad, at which point it descended and impacted the water on its left side.
This accident is under the jurisdiction of, and is being investigated by, the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau. Further information can be obtained by contacting them at:
15 Mort St, Braddon, ACT 2612, Australia PO Box 967, Civic Square ACT 2806, Australia Phone: +61 2 6230 4408
Web Site www.atsb.gov.au
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX08WA045
- Event ID
- 20080117X00071
- Case number
- LAX08WA045
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 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: ea9a39d17a7bbcde638bfd39cca2d307883b020df8f595d42ce8e5c26d6c90ff; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:02:33.121Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: damage, registration. The narrative states "the instructor pilot was fatally injured and the pilot under instruction was seriously injured; the helicopter was destroyed". The narrative states "a Robinson R-44, Australian registry VH-MEB, impacted the Yarra River".