CEN21LA021 · Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II
Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II · Accident: dynamic rollover while maneuvering
From an unrecorded airport to Ephraim-Gibraltar Airport (3D2)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN21LA021
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
- N31136
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Ephraim-Gibraltar Airport (3D2), Ephraim, WI
- Aircraft age
- Built the same year (2020)
- 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
- Dynamic rollover
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that while moving over a slight incline at a hover in preparation for the takeoff, a gust of wind caused the helicopter to weathervane, inadvertently contact the ground, and initiate a rolling motion. Although the proper response was to lower the collective in this situation, the pilot’s immediate reaction was to increase the collective, which exacerbated the dynamic rollover sequence. The helicopter continued the rolling motion and came to rest on its right side. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the main rotor system, the fuselage, and the tail rotor system. The pilot reported there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain lateral control during a hover and improper recovery action after the helicopter contacted the ground, which resulted in a dynamic rollover sequence and an impact with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN21LA021
- Event ID
- 20201019102165
- Case number
- CEN21LA021
- 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, cause areas. 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: 65fb6155a17b3b16a94049bce2d6e365c1e156778e733ae4f2758b014a21fc8d; retrieved 2026-09-16T13:15:34.356Z.