WPR10FA277 · Robinson R22 Beta
Inland Helicopters Robinson R22 Beta · Accident: loss of engine power (total) on approach
From Felts Field (SFF) to Felts Field (SFF)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10FA277
- 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
- 1 · 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 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
- N522SA
- Operator
- Inland Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Felts Field (SFF), Spokane, WATo Felts Field (SFF), Spokane, WA
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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 engine power (total)
- 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 power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After flying one time around the traffic pattern with the student pilot, who had made three previous solo flights, the flight instructor exited the helicopter. The student then completed about five touch-and-go landings. On the next approach, the helicopter appeared to be at a normal altitude and attitude for the base leg. The engine sputtered, and several witnesses heard one or two pops, and the rotor sounds went silent. Pieces flew off the helicopter, and then it began to spin clockwise, went nose low, and fell straight to the ground. One witness stated that the tail was v-shaped. Examination of the wreckage revealed strike marks consistent with main rotor blade contact with the tail boom, which separated from the airframe. The examination also revealed witness marks consistent with the engine not rotating at ground impact. The instructor observed the student pilot use carburetor heat while he was on board, but it could not be determined if it was applied on the accident flight. The conditions encountered in this accident were conducive for serious icing at cruise power. Due to numerous approaches in short succession, the engine may have never completely warmed to the point where it would shed all ice on each approach. The accumulation could have finally built up to the point that it caused a loss of engine power and subsequent low main rotor blade rpm condition if the student did not immediately lower the collective. However, it could not be determined if carburetor icing occurred. A safety notice issued by the helicopter’s manufacturer noted that main rotor blade stall due to low main rotor blade rpm caused a very high percentage of helicopter accidents. It pointed out that the stall would cause the main rotor blade rpm to rapidly decrease and lead to an immediate uncontrolled descent.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation and the student pilot's failure to maintain main rotor rpm. Contributing to the accident was the student pilot's low total flight experience.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10FA277
- Event ID
- 20100602X01732
- Case number
- WPR10FA277
- 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: 16ea53bb5d49f11f20895f1a2d481397313fe2ee6dd7d31c2a06e807f98c920c; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:50:37.150Z.