WPR13WA157 · Robinson R44
Robinson R44 · Accident
From Bankstown to Bulli Tops
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR13WA157
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- API-reported fatalities
- 4 · 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
- Not recorded
Robinson R44
- 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
- VH-HWQ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From BankstownTo Bulli Tops
- 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
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
On March 21, 2013, about 1207 local time, a Robinson Helicopter R44, VH-HWQ, collided with terrain near Bulli Tops, Australia. The pilot was operating the helicopter under the provisions of the Australian Civil Aviation Regulations. The pilot and three passengers sustained fatal injuries; the helicopter was destroyed. The personal cross-country flight departed Bankstown, New South Wales, Australia, en route to Bulli Tops, New South Wales, Australia. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The primary wreckage was located at -34.3147 degrees south latitude and 150.9128 degrees east longitude.
Preliminary information received from the government of Australia indicated that shortly after landing, the helicopter lifted off and turned to the right. The main rotor struck branches of a nearby tree, and the helicopter descended and then rolled over onto its right side. A fire started on the grass under the rotor mast and the cabin.
The accident is under the jurisdiction of, and is being investigated by, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, reference 201302720. Further information can be obtained from:
Australian Transport Safety Bureau 15 Mort Street, Braddon ACT 2612, Australia P.O. Box 967, Civic Square ACT 2608, Australia
Phone +61 2 6230 4408 Fax +61 2 6274 6434 Web site www.atsb.gov.au
This report is for information purposes only, and contains only information obtained for, or released by, the Government of Australia.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR13WA157
- Event ID
- 20130321X51224
- Case number
- WPR13WA157
- 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.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2767718f9310f38ed96d12f18260976cf7d12d0d928fb880a8e23ca7c504c8ad; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:54:36.172Z.