WPR13FA264 · Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II
Southern California Helicopters Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II · Accident en route
From Brackett Field (KPOC) to Brackett Field (KPOC)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR13FA264
- 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
- N915BW
- Operator
- Southern California Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brackett Field (KPOC), La Verne, CATo Brackett Field (KPOC), La Verne, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 7 years (built 2006)
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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 from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the flight, the pilot reported observing the main rotor gearbox chip warning light illuminate. In accordance with the helicopter's operating handbook, he performed an immediate precautionary landing. As he approached his intended landing spot, adjacent to a park trail, he saw people on the ground, so he diverted to a small clearing on a pinnacle at the end of another trail. After landing on the pinnacle and before he had a chance to fully lower the collective control, he felt the helicopter slip. He then raised the collective control, and the helicopter immediately spun to the right and rolled over. Ground scars and airframe damage indicated that, as the pilot attempted to reposition the helicopter, it most likely experienced a dynamic rollover due to the left landing skid becoming lodged against a ridge. Postaccident examination of the airframe and drive train revealed no preimpact malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Examination of the main rotor gearbox and its associated chip detector did not reveal the presence of any debris or particles that could have triggered the detector and no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. However, the gearbox case was breached during the accident sequence, which liberated most of the oil and possibly any chips that might have been in the gearbox; therefore, it could not be determined what triggered the detector.
Probable cause
The pilot’s loss of helicopter control following a precautionary landing, which resulted in a dynamic rollover.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR13FA264
- Event ID
- 20130606X34407
- Case number
- WPR13FA264
- 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: 2bbdbf48bb8b9df15706b5d66d1bcf321f89931f68da540a7893fec9d2f4c057; retrieved 2026-09-15T21:48:01.398Z.