ERA17CA101 · Robinson R22 BETA
Cloud 9 Helicopters Robinson R22 BETA · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From North Palm Beach County General Aviation Airport (F45) to North Palm Beach County General Aviation Airport (F45)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17CA101
- 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 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
- N7685H
- Operator
- Cloud 9 Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Palm Beach County General Aviation Airport (F45), West Palm Beach, FLTo North Palm Beach County General Aviation Airport (F45), West Palm Beach, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2002)
- 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, he was conducting an instructional flight in the helicopter and demonstrating low-rotor rpm operations from a hover. The helicopter was at a 3-ft hover when he initiated the maneuver with the student pilot "on the flight controls" following the flight instructor's movements. As the throttle was reduced, the helicopter's nose began to rotate to the left. The flight instructor pushed the right antitorque pedal to counter the rotation, but the pedal initially felt like it was "blocked." The right skid contacted the taxiway, causing the helicopter to bounce and rotate to the right. The flight instructor applied full throttle and collective to attempt to gain altitude; however, the helicopter departed the taxiway, entered an adjacent grass area, and rolled over onto its left side. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the main rotor and the tailboom. Examination of the flight control system by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector did not reveal any anomalies. In addition, the flight instructor reported there was no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The flight instructor’s failure to maintain helicopter control while demonstrating low rotor rpm operations from a hover.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17CA101
- Event ID
- 20170206X64951
- Case number
- ERA17CA101
- 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: 1ca8a41e104a426e8088da9decac6cedbdc2d6d155f22d62e92bf14d5d5c7800; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:59:48.700Z.