ERA09LA410 · Robinson R44 II
Advanced Helicopter Concepts Robinson R44 II · Accident en route
From Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK) to Lancaster Airport (LNS)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09LA410
- 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 II
- 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
- N25VH
- Operator
- Advanced Helicopter Concepts
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK), Frederick, MDTo Lancaster Airport (LNS), Lancaster, PA
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student helicopter pilot was at the end of the cruise portion of a solo cross-country flight. When she was about to begin her descent to the destination airport, she noticed that the vertical speed indicator was indicating a descent of approximately 1,000 feet per minute and that the airspeed had increased about 10 knots. The pilot "raised the collective" control in an effort to reduce or stop the descent, but the helicopter did not respond as she expected and the descent continued. She then determined that she would not be able to reach the airport, and selected a field suitable for a landing. The helicopter landed hard in the field, and sustained substantial damage to the skids and portions of the engine mount and fuselage. On-scene examination did not reveal any preimpact failures or anomalies and postaccident testing, including runs at the engine manufacturer's factory, indicated that the engine performed normally and was capable of developing its rated power. The helicopter was equipped with hydraulically boosted main rotor flight controls which were to be used for all phases of flight. The pilot's control for activating or deactivating the hydraulic system was a 1/4 inch unguarded toggle switch located on the pilot’s cyclic control stick. The accident helicopter was not equipped with any visual or audio annunciations to alert the pilot that the hydraulic system had either failed or was selected off in flight, and no such option was available from the manufacturer. According to the helicopter manufacturer's pilot operating handbook, "Hydraulic system failure is indicated by heavy or stiff cyclic and collective controls," and that in the event that the hydraulic system failed or was turned off, "control will be normal except for the increase in stick forces." Although some control symptoms experienced by the pilot were consistent with an inoperative hydraulic system, some were not, and no physical evidence of an inoperative hydraulic system was noted.
Probable cause
The student pilot's inability to fully control the helicopter, during cruise and the resultant off-field hard landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09LA410
- Event ID
- 20090719X41101
- Case number
- ERA09LA410
- 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: 5e9f0125c987d32d9e587c1728fc6f0db6116bdf505393f633e2f97407e5a58e; retrieved 2026-09-15T11:55:07.034Z.