ERA17LA168 · Robinson R44 II
Chesapeake Bay Helicopters Robinson R44 II · Accident: loss of tail rotor effectiveness while maneuvering
From Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (JQF) to Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (JQF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17LA168
- 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 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
- N728CB
- Operator
- Chesapeake Bay Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (JQF), Concord, NCTo Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (JQF), Concord, NC
- Aircraft age
- About 7 years (built 2010)
- 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 tail rotor effectiveness
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial helicopter pilot and a crewmember were conducting a pipeline patrol when they noticed a right-of-way infraction (construction work) that they wanted to photograph. The pilot then entered a left circuit at 500 ft above ground level. The pilot reported that he subsequently felt a shudder in the controls and that the helicopter began to yaw right and spin. Although the pilot reported that he maintained an airspeed of 70 knots while maneuvering, GPS data revealed that the loss of yaw control occurred at the completion of the first left circuit and the beginning of the second left circuit as the helicopter slowed to a groundspeed of about 1 mph. Weather data indicated that, at this point, the helicopter was experiencing an 8-knot tailwind. The pilot lowered the helicopter's nose but was unable to correct the spin. He entered an autorotation and maneuvered to avoid residences and utility poles, and the helicopter then impacted the ground.
Examination of the helicopter did not reveal any evidence of preimpact mechanical malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation. It is likely that the low-airspeed condition combined with a tailwind during out-of-ground-effect maneuvering resulted in a loss of helicopter control due to a loss of tail rotor effectiveness.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed during out-of-ground-effect maneuvering at a low airspeed with a tailwind, which resulted in a loss of helicopter control due to a loss of tail rotor effectiveness.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17LA168
- Event ID
- 20170427X55613
- Case number
- ERA17LA168
- 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: 9da70d2a24ef2bd85e7b7e37331f0cd29a7c7480846468f022b640f47ae32de6; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:12:19.639Z.