Helicopter Air Alaska Robinson R44 II accident
Robinson R44 II · Accident while standing
From Neets Bay, AK to Ketchikan, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC20CA068
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
- N878CB
- Operator
- Helicopter Air Alaska
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Neets Bay, AKTo Ketchikan, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 16 years (built 2004)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, after landing on an elevated helicopter deck and reducing the rotor RPM, he signaled for the brush cutting ground crew leader to approach the helicopter to collect additional chainsaw bars that were being dropped off. He added that, the crew leader indicated that two of the three chainsaw bars were not the correct bars needed, and then threw an incorrect bar away from the helicopter. Subsequently, the bar impacted a main rotor blade, which resulted in substantial damage.
The pilot reported that the brush cutting crew had been briefed before operations on gear security, rotor awareness, and safe practices when working around the helicopter. The crew leader admitted to a lapse in judgment brought on by stress and frustration.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The crew leader's decision to throw a chainsaw bar into the moving arc of the main rotor blade.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC20CA068
- Event ID
- 20200715X05525
- Case number
- ANC20CA068
- 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: 0bc463c4f2021c2c90a9eae8f8348227f31a0b5af16b8bf9a6c58d366ccac87b; retrieved 2026-09-16T12:08:34.221Z.