WPR10LA298 · Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA
Hillsboro Aviation Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) on approach
From Portland Hillsboro Airport (KHIO) to Portland Hillsboro Airport (KHIO)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10LA298
- 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 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
- N2548S
- Operator
- Hillsboro Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland Hillsboro Airport (KHIO), Hillsboro, ORTo Portland Hillsboro Airport (KHIO), 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
- 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 (partial)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
As the pilot was approaching the destination airport after a local flight, the helicopter's engine rpm began to fluctuate between 100 percent and 60 percent. Although lowering the collective and manipulating the throttle temporarily increased the rpm, it began to fluctuate again, with the rpm decreasing. After the low rotor rpm warning horn and light activated, the pilot made the decision to perform an autorotation to a nearby open field. The helicopter touched down on the skids and subsequently rolled over onto its side. Prior to the accident, the helicopter's engine had been reportedly experiencing rpm fluctuations. A postaccident examination was performed on the engine and the magnetos and governor underwent further analysis. No evidence was found of an anomaly or malfunction that would have prevented the engine from producing normal power.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power while on approach for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10LA298
- Event ID
- 20100619X91410
- Case number
- WPR10LA298
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2010-06-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 25000e5d32b73ad037970ecd295b52c701064b79acc726f77fa26677e1b79abb; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:27:56.502Z.