WPR10CA278 · Robinson R22 BETA
Universal Air Academy Robinson R22 BETA · Accident: loss of engine power (total) on approach
From Brackett Field (KPOC) to Brackett Field (KPOC)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10CA278
- 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 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
- N7028U
- Operator
- Universal Air Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brackett Field (KPOC), La Verne, CATo Brackett Field (KPOC), La Verne, CA
- 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
- 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 power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that during approach he noticed the trim was still on. He reached down to turn it off by feel while he was visually focused outside the helicopter and concentrating on the approach. The pilot reported that the trim knob was stuck in the "up" position and he applied increasing pressure until it moved. He said that while focused on the approach, he "blindly checked the status of the trim knob," and that he "unintentionally and without explanation pulled the mixture control up." The pilot reported that the engine instantly turned off and the low rotor RPM system activated, followed by the pilot entering an autorotation. The engine stopped at a height of approximately 50 feet above ground level (agl) and that the helicopter touched down in the dirt and rolled onto the pilot's side. The pilot reported no mechanical failures or malfunctions prior to the accident.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to the pilot's inadvertent movement of the mixture control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10CA278
- Event ID
- 20100605X53131
- Case number
- WPR10CA278
- 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: 85a3627dbb671a3c1f878a76db545e474d61c35262b6b3d1be52863b93b5bf84; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:21:36.904Z.