WPR14CA325 · Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II
Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II · Accident: loss of tail rotor effectiveness while taxiing
From I-99 · Kaunakakai, HI to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)
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
- WPR14CA325
- 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
- N110JC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From I-99 · Kaunakakai, HITo Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Honolulu, HI
- Aircraft age
- About 2 years (built 2012)
- 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
- Taxi
- 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 tail rotor effectiveness
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that while air-taxiing east about 15 feet above ground level (agl) to parking with adjoining buildings on both sides, which were known for buffeting winds that made it difficult to control the helicopter's yaw, he encountered a strong gust of wind. The helicopter abruptly yawed to the right and he input left pedal control which did not correct the right yaw. The helicopter continued rotating to the right at an increasing speed; full left pedal had no effect. The pilot stated that the helicopter subsequently completed several 360-degree turns to the right, which rendered it completely uncontrollable; he abruptly lowered the collective from about 8 to 10 feet agl to get the helicopter on the ground. During the descent the helicopter's left skid impacted the center of the taxiway, slid toward a fuel truck, and came to rest on its right side. The main rotor blade impacted a fuel truck's windshield. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the tail boom and the upper and lower cabin/cockpit structure. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate compensation for the wind conditions and failure to maintain aircraft control during taxi, which resulted in a loss of tail rotor effectiveness and subsequent impact with the taxiway and a parked fuel truck.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14CA325
- Event ID
- 20140804X02020
- Case number
- WPR14CA325
- 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 2014-08-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e607d8354fb97d343dde2feff44df80bc6c3c308fb517f47e033119a5aaae069; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:35:48.714Z.