WPR14CA385 · Robinson Helicopter R44
Robinson Helicopter R44 · Accident on approach
From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (PHNL) to Kawaihapai Airfield (PHDH)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14CA385
- 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 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
- N8375E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (PHNL), Honolulu, HITo Kawaihapai Airfield (PHDH), Mokuleia, HI
- Aircraft age
- About 17 years (built 1997)
- 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
- Approach
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
When the helicopter was inbound to the destination airport, one of the two pilots radioed for the wind information, and was provided a wind direction of 310 degrees at a speed of 10 knots by the Unicom operator. The pilot flew a left traffic pattern for runway 8, which according to the flying pilot, was a "normal approach for winds from the northeast." The pilot planned to land on the compass rose painted just north of the threshold of runway 8. The flight and approach were normal through the turn to the base leg. On short final or in the flare, the helicopter began descending too quickly, and the pilots were unable to arrest the descent before the helicopter struck the ground. The helicopter remained upright; the pilots shut down the helicopter and de-boarded the passengers. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the tail, tail rotor, tail boom, and fuselage. Although both pilots stated that the helicopter experienced a "settling with power" event, neither pilot could recall the reported winds. The flying pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control during landing with a quartering tailwind, which resulted in a hard landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14CA385
- Event ID
- 20140923X44032
- Case number
- WPR14CA385
- 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 2014-09-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: dd9946174014503feb7512b2a1d930edacb0a8aa68ec814b696c4ee2a481ab9e; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:47:50.850Z.