ANC08CA112 · Robinson R44
Robinson R44 · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) on approach
From Iliamna Airport (PAIL) to Iliamna, AK
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location and damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC08CA112
- 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 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
- N291VB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Iliamna Airport (PAIL), Iliamna, AKTo Iliamna, AK
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- 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
- Wire
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial Possible conflict
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial helicopter pilot was positioning the helicopter to move crew members from a drilling test site. As he approached and passed the approximately 70-foot high drill tower, he related that he was about 30 feet above the ground, when he heard a violent bang and lost control of the helicopter. The helicopter immediately became uncontrollable, and descended rapidly to the ground, where it caught fire. The pilot said he was able to release his seat restraints, and crawled through where the windscreen/bubble used to be. The drilling crew had previously stripped approximately 6,000 feet of 3/8-inch thick cable from the drum at the base of the drill tower, over the top of the tower, and onto the ground. The pilot was unaware of these activities, and did not see the wire until after he had collided with it. According to the operator, pulling the wire off the drum was a rare occurrence, and there was no active communication from ground personnel alerting the pilot that the wire was trailing away from the tower.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to see a wire cable prior to colliding with it. Factors contributing to the accident were the non-routine positioning of the wire cable, and the ground crew's failure to advise the pilot that the wire had been re-routed.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC08CA112
- Event ID
- 20080828X01351
- Case number
- ANC08CA112
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2008-08-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 01debad50fc389144147de1942d2e656d5bb6814169c0534d09eb65f26b7adbd; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:07:49.492Z.