WPR13CA064 · Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II
Blue Sky Helicopters Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) en route
From Scottsdale Airport (KSDL) to Scottsdale Airport (KSDL)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR13CA064
- 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 Company R44 II
- 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
- N557AC
- Operator
- Blue Sky Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Scottsdale Airport (KSDL), Scottsdale, AZTo Scottsdale Airport (KSDL), Scottsdale, AZ
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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 › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot descended the helicopter out of mountainous terrain and then continued over a large mountain lake, cruising about 100 knots at an altitude of about 200 to 250 feet. The lake water was very clear and perfectly calm. The pilot looked inside the cockpit to check instruments, and when he looked outside and below the helicopter, he experienced a feeling of mental confusion similar to vertigo. At this point the pilot estimated that the helicopter was between 15 and 20 feet above the water. He pulled aft on the cyclic, the helicopter impacted the water, pitched forward, and sank. The pilot and his two passengers were able to egress the helicopter while it was submerged.
Immediately after the accident the pilot told a park ranger who was on-scene that he was traveling a little low and thought he set a skid in the water. One of the passengers stated that moments before the collision with the water, the pilot had asked them if they wanted to get closer to the water and if they wanted to chase some birds.
Probable cause
The pilot's visual disorientation, which resulted in a collision with the lake.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR13CA064
- Event ID
- 20121207X91829
- Case number
- WPR13CA064
- 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: 764a4f37c5d58121c0e6e9cea81d8184ad4156d3f7ad4eaa79e1c81f01876ed2; retrieved 2026-09-15T20:32:40.809Z.