ERA10CA051 · Robinson Helicopter R44
Universal Aviation Vertical Group Robinson Helicopter R44 · Accident: roll over during landing
From Alta Vega, PR (no airport) to Morovis, PR (no airport)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA10CA051
- 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 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
- N440M
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Alta Vega, PR (no airport)To Morovis, PR (no airport)
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Roll over
- 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 a Federal Aviation Administration inspector, the pilot flew the helicopter to one location (about 100 feet above sea level) where three adult passengers boarded, then flew to a landing pad at an elevation of 1,391 feet above sea level. According to the pilot, after one recognition pass, she began a "confined pinnacle approach." While on short final, the pilot decided to go around and added power, but the helicopter "did not respond accordingly." The low rotor rpm horn sounded and the low rotor rpm light illuminated. The pilot noted "no airspeed, no altitude," and continued to an "emergency landing." Upon touchdown, with the right skid partially off the landing pad, the helicopter rolled over to the left, resulting in damage to the rotor system and tail boom. The pilot also stated that the winds were calm and that the outside air temperature gauge indicated 24 degrees Centigrade. She further noted that there were no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the helicopter.
Probable cause
The pilot’s delayed attempt to go around.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA10CA051
- Event ID
- 20091106X42849
- Case number
- ERA10CA051
- 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: 43c0af36f695bdafea089f3cb01b68e2cf18959b7697586426abc466b765b190; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:28:34.872Z.