GAA16CA488 · Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II
Southern Utah University Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Parowan Airport (1L9) to Parowan Airport (1L9)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA488
- 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
- N46HF
- Operator
- Southern Utah University
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Parowan Airport (1L9), Parowan, UTTo Parowan Airport (1L9), Parowan, UT
- Aircraft age
- About 12 years (built 2004)
- 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 · hover
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the flight instructor in the skid-equipped helicopter, he was teaching the student to hover over an asphalt helipad. He reported that he transferred the flight controls to the student and directed the student to maintain a stable hover. The nose pitched down, and a right lateral drift occurred. The flight instructor immediately grabbed the flight controls, but the front of the right skid contacted the ground. The main rotor blades then struck the ground, and the helicopter rolled onto its right side. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the tailboom, fuselage, and the main rotor blades.
The instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or anomalies with the helicopter that would have prevented normal operation.
The meteorological aerodrome report at the airport where the accident occurred reported that the wind was 200° at 9 knots, gusting to 18 knots.
Probable cause
The flight instructor’s delayed remedial action while providing hover instruction in gusting wind conditions, which resulted in dynamic roll-over.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA488
- Event ID
- 20160915X30336
- Case number
- GAA16CA488
- 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: aca9569ce3f83198218e977fa6cb8421dc860ac4e7d36c412989465d146aa756; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:16:24.039Z.