WPR11LA003 · Robinson R22 BETA
Hillsboro Aviation Robinson R22 BETA · Accident: hard landing
From Portland Hillsboro Airport (HIO) to Scappoose Industrial Airpark (SPB)
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
- WPR11LA003
- 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
- N2356T
- Operator
- Hillsboro Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Portland Hillsboro Airport (HIO), Portland, ORTo Scappoose Industrial Airpark (SPB), Portland, 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the instructional helicopter flight, the student pilot and a certified flight instructor (CFI) were practicing pattern work, hover work, and “set downs and pickups.” On the third set down, after the landing skids touched down, the helicopter started to spin to the right about 180 degrees. The CFI said he attempted to correct the yaw; however, the student was “too stiff” on the flight controls. The student pilot overpowered the CFI on the controls and raised the collective, which resulted in the helicopter climbing about 2 to 3 feet above the ground. The helicopter then landed hard breaking the left rear skid. The tail rotor subsequently struck the ground, and the helicopter made one complete rotation before coming to a rest. The CFI reported no mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine prior to the accident. Despite requests from investigators, the student pilot did not provide a statement.
Probable cause
The student pilot’s failure to maintain helicopter control during the landing flare and his subsequent interference with the flight instructor's control inputs. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor’s inadequate supervision.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11LA003
- Event ID
- 20101008X62452
- Case number
- WPR11LA003
- 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: 080031d295d5be5805373b6754d49f5b7dd34b1289ac51e9b8d00e552ea3af18; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:27:49.043Z.