ERA19LA144 · Robinson R22 BETA
Robinson R22 BETA · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing during initial climb
From Alpha Hotel Airport (07VA) to William M Tuck Airport (W78)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA19LA144
- 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
- 0
- 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
- N4047H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Alpha Hotel Airport (07VA), Clover, VATo William M Tuck Airport (W78), South Boston, VA
- Aircraft age
- About 28 years (built 1991)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to a witness, it was dark, and the pilot of the helicopter planned on making a 180° hover turn and perform a steep departure down the runway that was lined by trees. The witness observed the helicopter hover, rotate about 150°, and start a steep departure climb. As the helicopter climbed, it crossed over the runway and the main rotor blades impacted a tree about 50 ft above the ground. The helicopter turned sharply and fell nose-down to the ground. The witness stated that, prior to takeoff, the helicopter sounded and appeared to perform normally; all navigation and landing lights were functioning prior to takeoff. A postcrash fire destroyed the helicopter. Examination of the engine and airframe did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The witness suggested placing a vehicle with lights at the end of the runway, but the pilot declined the suggestion. Based on the dark night conditions during takeoff, it is likely that the pilot did not see the perimeter of the takeoff area and impacted the trees.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate visual lookout, which resulted in a collision with trees. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s decision to takeoff at night without adequate runway lighting.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA19LA144
- Event ID
- 20190407X73853
- Case number
- ERA19LA144
- 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, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2019-04-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 13faa6717b489c3af972703bee7df7fe6e6a16a62a290007ed70d0299602e302; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:43:16.957Z.