MIA08FA044 · Robinson R44
Robinson R44 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport (KTNT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA08FA044
- 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 R44
- 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
- N18HB
- Operator
- Donald S. Mills · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport (KTNT), Ochoppe, FLTo 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
- 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
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness stated he observed the helicopter at a hover above the grass; north and parallel to the taxiway, short of the runway 27 hold line. The helicopter went up very fast to an altitude of about 200 feet and made a right turn above runway 27, into a tailwind, in a nose down attitude. The tail of the helicopter turned 45 degrees to the left side of the runway. The helicopter made a roll to the left and became inverted. The rotor blades stopped and the helicopter continued the roll to the left until it became right side up, and descended in a nose down, left turn colliding with the ground. The pilot attended factory training for the R22 helicopter, and his instructor stated in the general comments, "Hi time airplane pilot still thinks airplane." Examination of the airframe, flight controls, and engine assembly and accessories revealed no anomalies.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control while maneuvering. Contributing to the accident were a tailwind condition and the pilot's inadequate in-flight planning/decision.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA08FA044
- Event ID
- 20080128X00108
- Case number
- MIA08FA044
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 01ee1a77329fd528011e2e664193ed4cc713ef301514be9d0b5475761477b6a3; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:54:06.961Z.