Pollux Aviation Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II accident
Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II · Accident: loss of control on ground while standing
From Ketchikan, AK to Ketchikan, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA009
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
- N779DZ
- Operator
- Pollux Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ketchikan, AKTo Ketchikan, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 12 years (built 2003)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- 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 control on ground
- 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, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter pilot reported that during the engine start sequence on an offshore barge with a bare steel deck, the main rotor system clutch was engaging, and the throttle was applied to maintain 60 percent engine revolutions per minute. He reported that the skid and tundra/snow board equipped helicopter began a rapid right yaw, left pedal was applied simultaneously with throttle closure, but the helicopter rapidly yawed left resulting in the vertical stabilizer and tail rotor blade system impacting a crane stationed on the deck. The pilot then shut down the helicopter without further incident. A postflight inspection revealed substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer and the tail rotor blade system.
The pilot reported there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the engine start sequence, which resulted in the helicopter sliding on a steel deck and impacting a crane. Contributing to the accident was the absence of traction material on the helicopter operations portion of the steel deck.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA009
- Event ID
- 20151007X90503
- Case number
- GAA16CA009
- 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: 58e3bd019450a8f021eab4f2402498da58af4b220d470fcf47f9bcceda6414e8; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:52:28.078Z.