ANC16LA010 · Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II
Vertical Solutions Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Valdez Pioneer Field (VDZ) to Valdez Pioneer Field (VDZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC16LA010
- 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
- N255VS
- Operator
- Vertical Solutions
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Valdez Pioneer Field (VDZ), Valdez, AKTo Valdez Pioneer Field (VDZ), Valdez, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2014)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 engine power (total)
- 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 power plant
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot was departing on a power line patrol flight in the helicopter. After liftoff, the pilot hovered the helicopter about 10 ft above ground level (agl) before commencing a left turn, accelerating to about 25 knots, and initiating a climb. As the helicopter climbed through about 20 ft agl, the engine experienced a total loss of power. The pilot performed an autorotation, but the helicopter landed hard, resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage, skids and tail boom.
Review of the accident helicopter's maintenance records revealed that the fuel injection servo had been repaired and reinstalled about 2 hours before the accident flight. During postaccident examination of the fuel injection servo assembly, small amounts of a white, greasy substance were discovered in the servo assembly. The greasy substance, later identified as DuPont Krytox, is a lubricant used in small amounts and specific locations, during reassembly after overhaul or maintenance of the fuel injection servo assembly.
Inspection of a fuel injection servo from a different helicopter that had been overhauled by the same maintenance facility revealed similar contamination. A representative from the maintenance facility stated that about 6 months before the accident, they had begun using Dupont Krytox, an approved lubricant, but did not realize that it was being used in excess and in locations not approved per the maintenance/service manual.
Due to the improper and excessive use of assembly lubricant and the lack of engine anomalies, it is likely that the lubricant contaminated the fuel injection servo, causing a disruption in fuel flow, which resulted in a total loss of engine power.
Probable cause
The overhaul facility’s improper and excessive use of an approved lubricant during overhaul of the fuel injection servo, which resulted in a disruption of fuel flow and a total loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC16LA010
- Event ID
- 20151217X15124
- Case number
- ANC16LA010
- 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. 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: 0c223a2283fdd2c5eae0f89c1278c41134963d29ee0b2e0e9f4aaa3a6dcabe24; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:02:25.043Z.