ANC18LA032 · Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II
Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Chena Marina Airport (AK28) to Unknown, AK (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC18LA032
- 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
- N511CC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chena Marina Airport (AK28), Fairbanks, AKTo Unknown, AK (no airport)
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2003)
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was preparing to depart from an asphalt pad at a private airport for a personal flight. The pilot reported that, after he brought the helicopter to hover and proceeded to turn the helicopter while positioned over the pad, a gust of wind "pushed" the helicopter into a snowbank and trees. The helicopter sustained substantial damage. A review of weather information just before and after the time of the accident reported no wind gust conditions and indicated that wind was from 330° at 11 kts before the accident and from 340° at 12 kts after the accident. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
Analysis of postaccident measurements revealed that there was suitable clearance for the helicopter to conduct a hovering turn from where the helicopter was positioned over the pad to the snowbank and trees. It is likely the pilot failed to maintain his position over his reference point during the hovering turn along with not compensating for the wind conditions, which resulted in a loss of control in flight and impact with the snowbank and trees.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain helicopter control while in a hovering turn, which resulted in a collision with obstacles.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC18LA032
- Event ID
- 20180423X85752
- Case number
- ANC18LA032
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2018-04-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4a02692e1a7aaa577ab0c654cc835320a7dfac8b096b8aacc1cad4fc54dab5d9; retrieved 2026-09-16T06:54:54.205Z.