CEN18LA087 · Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II
Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II and Landsgaard Equipment Leasing Beech A36 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: midair collision on approach
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN18LA087
- 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
Aircraft 1 · 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
- N878BC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Century Helicopters Heliport (0CO7), Fort Collins, COTo Northern Colorado Regional Airport (FNL), Longmont, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 12 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
- Approach
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Beech A36 UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- Category
- Airplane
- 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
- N777YF
- Operator
- Landsgaard Equipment Leasing
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY), Greeley, COTo Northern Colorado Regional Airport (FNL), Longmont, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 29 years (built 1989)
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The accident occurred when a helicopter (N878BC) and an airplane (N777YF) collided midair while on approach to the airport. The helicopter pilot intended to fly a practice instrument approach to the runway, perform the missed approach procedure, and enter the published holding pattern. The airplane pilot intended to enter the traffic pattern, with appropriate spacing, for a full stop landing on the same runway. The airplane pilot had the helicopter in sight and was following the helicopter to the runway. While on final approach, the airplane pilot thought that the helicopter had entered a hover and asked the helicopter pilot about his intentions. The helicopter pilot indicated that he would be flying the missed approach procedure and then returning to the airport, but the airplane pilot incorrectly heard the helicopter pilot's response and believed that the helicopter was going to hover near the end of the runway and then proceed to the east. As a result, the airplane pilot expected the helicopter to be east of the airport, which was a common location for local helicopter training, when the airplane would be landing; however, the helicopter was on approach to the runway at that time. During the airplane's approach, the airplane pilot lost sight of the helicopter. The airplane continued to land and collided with the helicopter.
Probable cause
The airplane pilot’s failure to see and avoid the helicopter while in the traffic pattern, which resulted in a midair collision between the two aircraft. Contributing to the accident was the airplane pilot’s misunderstanding of the helicopter pilot’s intentions and the airplane pilot’s expectation that the helicopter would be clear of the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN18LA087
- Event ID
- 20180130X64322
- Case number
- CEN18LA087
- 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, coordinates. 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: b54a1722a2fb6f32bb4cf7e090630c0057c3b7a802bd8efcafb784d49cb88695; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:28:51.002Z.