CEN16LA039 · Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II
Concho Aviation Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Alpine, TX (private airstrip) to Alpine, TX (private airstrip)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN16LA039
- 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
- N449MC
- Operator
- Concho Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Alpine, TX (private airstrip)To Alpine, TX (private airstrip)
- Aircraft age
- About 3 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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 in flight
- 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
The commercial pilot and crewmembers were conducting wildlife surveys and predator control at the time of the accident. The pilot did not have any recollection of the accident sequence. Crewmember statements and GPS data indicated that the pilot was maneuvering the helicopter about 40 ft above ground level when the low rotor speed warning activated. The pilot attempted to regain rotor speed by descending into a small canyon. However, his efforts were unsuccessful, and the helicopter subsequently impacted trees and terrain. A review of GPS data revealed that the pilot had completed a low-speed, 360-degree turn followed by a gradual descending left turn immediately before the impact.
One crewmember reported that the pilot told him that, during the takeoff on the morning flight, the helicopter "wouldn't go" and that the low rotor speed warning came on. A postaccident examination of the helicopter did not reveal any preimpact failures or malfunctions. Postaccident calculations revealed that the helicopter was operated within the gross weight and center-of-gravity limitations. However, the flight was operating at or near the helicopter's out-of-ground effect hover ceiling performance limit.
It is likely that the main rotor speed decayed as the pilot maneuvered the helicopter while it was at or near its performance limit and that the pilot decided to conduct the flight knowing the helicopter was near its performance limit. Insufficient altitude was available to allow the pilot to lower the collective and recover the rotor speed before impact with trees and terrain.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate rotor speed while maneuvering at low altitude, which resulted in a descent from which he was unable to recover. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's decision to conduct the flight at or near the helicopter's performance limit, which precluded recovery of the rotor speed in sufficient time to avoid the accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN16LA039
- Event ID
- 20151116X85351
- Case number
- CEN16LA039
- 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: 27eb275ad838d2f069e654534e3faf4a1426ca7c6656a6ea7d059cc7056619ed; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:58:15.513Z.