ERA16LA094 · Robinson Helicopter R22 Beta
Academy of Aviation Robinson Helicopter R22 Beta · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure en route
From Republic Airport (FRG) to Republic Airport (FRG)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA16LA094
- 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
- 0
- 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 R22 Beta
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R22
- 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
- N404LE
- Operator
- Academy of Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Republic Airport (FRG), Farmingdale, NYTo Republic Airport (FRG), Farmingdale, NY
- Aircraft age
- About 10 years (built 2006)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Powerplant system/component malfunction/failure
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the flight instructor, the helicopter had been airborne for about 2 hours when it began to experience vibrations, which increased in intensity. He stated that the vibrations became “very violent” as he began to reduce engine power and were soon followed by the activation of the low rotor rpm horn and light warning system. The flight instructor performed an autorotation to a street in a residential area. The helicopter touched down and bounced, the main rotor blades struck a sign, and the helicopter rolled over onto its right side, which resulted in substantial damage to the airframe. A postaccident engine test run revealed that after the engine was started, it operated smoothly at idle and when the rpm was increased; however, when the left magneto was selected, the engine shut down. Both magnetos were removed and functionally checked on a test stand with no malfunctions noted. Subsequent disassembly of the left magneto revealed that the internal magneto timing was off by two teeth, which would have increased the gap between the distributor gear finger and the distributor block’s stationary electrodes; but not precluded the magneto’s ability to function. The flight instructor was using full carburetor heat throughout the accident flight. It is likely that the cumulative effect of carburetor heat, which would have reduced engine rpm, and an intermittent failure of the left magneto for reasons that could not be determined resulted in the engine roughness that preceded the autorotation.
Probable cause
A rough running engine as a result of an intermittent failure of the left magneto for reasons that could not be determined, which resulted in a subsequent autorotation, impact with a sign, and rollover.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA16LA094
- Event ID
- 20160127X34458
- Case number
- ERA16LA094
- 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, cause areas. 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: efff3f84a60e47fea4df0951d00bc1d491f536e8de3520210ff7ab528d6dc66d; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:07:13.097Z.