ERA09CA155 · Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA
Scenic Helicopters Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport (GKT) to Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport (GKT)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09CA155
- 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
- N7687H
- Operator
- Scenic Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport (GKT), Sevierville, TNTo Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport (GKT), Sevierville, TN
- 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 · hover
- 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 › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the flight instructor, the student pilot was hover taxiing the helicopter along a taxiway that paralleled Runway 10 when she asked him to stop and make a left, 90-degree pedal turn. At the time, winds were from 230 degrees at 8 knots. The student pilot initiated the pedal turn and, as the helicopter reached the 90-degree position, it began a spin to the left, which increased in velocity. The flight instructor then advised the student pilot that she had the controls; however, the spin would not stop. It became "very fast and I wasn't sure which way we were spinning." The flight instructor then reduced the throttle, but the spin "got faster," so she quickly lowered the collective "to get the helicopter on the ground." The helicopter then landed hard, the left landing gear impacted the engine exhaust, the tail rotor blades hit the ground and were sheared off, and the tail boom was separated near the transmission. No preaccident mechanical anomalies were noted with the helicopter.
Probable cause
The flight instructor's improper remedial action following the student pilot's loss of control. Contributing to the accident was the student pilot's loss of control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09CA155
- Event ID
- 20090204X45212
- Case number
- ERA09CA155
- 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. 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: 1ad09057a312957c71e7428c315dd554c3beb9a0501bc42c8d5ba2c10cd24c96; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:43:49.036Z.