WPR09FA459 · Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA
Hillsboro Aviation Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA · Accident: loss of control in flight during autorotation
From Portland Hillsboro Airport (HIO) to Portland Hillsboro Airport (HIO)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09FA459
- 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 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
- N956SH
- Operator
- Hillsboro Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland Hillsboro Airport (HIO), Hillsboro, ORTo Portland Hillsboro Airport (HIO), Hillsboro, OR
- 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
- Autorotation
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot under instruction was preparing for a certified flight instructor (CFI) check ride and was in the left seat. The CFI was in the right seat, and the two airmen were going to practice autorotations with power recoveries. A witness with helicopter experience observed several uneventful autorotations and then stopped watching; another witness heard a bang. The witnesses then observed the helicopter descending upright with the left skid low. Investigators examined the wreckage and observed signatures indicating that the engine and main rotor blades were rotating at a low speed at impact. The main rotor blades were also coned upward, which is indicative of a low main rotor rpm state. A safety notice issued by the helicopter's manufacturer notes that main rotor blade stall due to low main rotor rpm causes a high percentage of helicopter accidents. It points out that the stall causes the main rotor rpm to rapidly decrease, and leads to an immediate uncontrolled descent.
Probable cause
The flight crew’s failure to maintain adequate main rotor speed while maneuvering, which resulted in a main rotor blade stall and an uncontrolled descent into terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09FA459
- Event ID
- 20090920X34134
- Case number
- WPR09FA459
- 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: 25e243b4a191a1f77aa63f15c7b0d7e8247f23023e5788d3a1ccfd2e350759c8; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:28:52.257Z.