CEN09WA216 · Robinson R44
Motta International Robinson R44 · Accident: explosion (non-impact) en route
From Miraflores to Albrook
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN09WA216
- 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
- 3 · 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
- HP-AM3
- Operator
- Motta International
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From MirafloresTo Albrook
- 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
- En route
- 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
- Explosion (non-impact)
- 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
A Panamanian-registered Robinson R44, was destroyed when it exploded in flight and impacted the parking lot at Tocumen International Airport (PTY), Tocumen, Panama. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The pilot and two passengers were fatally injured.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the government of Panama. Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
Direccion de Aeronautica Civil Apartados 7501 y 7615 Panama 5 http://www.aeronautica.gob.pa
This report is for information purposes only and contains only information released by the Panamanian Government.
Probable cause
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the government of Panama. Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
Direccion de Aeronautica Civil Apartados 7501 y 7615 Panama 5 http://www.aeronautica.gob.pa
This report is for information purposes only and contains only information released by the Panamanian Government.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN09WA216
- Event ID
- 20090317X75000
- Case number
- CEN09WA216
- 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: 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: 0f8aaf8d8db28c03875decb80288c7baea20fe94a0ee05d828de672207e8d5a5; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:59:56.247Z.