CEN21FA410 · Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA
Concho Aviation Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) while maneuvering
From Sterling City, TX (private airstrip) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN21FA410
- 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
- 1 · 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 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
- N292DD
- Operator
- Concho Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sterling City, TX (private airstrip)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 19 years (built 2002)
- 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 · low-altitude flying
- 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 with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- 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
- Wire
- 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 › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight was operated for the purpose of gathering cattle. The pilot departed from a temporary staging area and completed multiple passes in the area over an approximate 1 hour and 40-minute period. Ground support personnel observed the helicopter six times during that time; however, there were no witnesses to the accident. The helicopter wreckage was located near a set of powerlines in an area of low brush. One power transmission line was separated and draped over the intact lines. The forward fuselage exhibited localized discoloration consistent with electrical arcing damage. Repetitive linear marks consistent with powerline contact were present aft of the arcing damage. Postaccident airframe and engine examinations did not identify any anomalies consistent with a preimpact failure or malfunction. Based on the available information, it is likely that the pilot did not see the powerlines while maneuvering at low altitude, which resulted in an in-flight collision with the powerlines.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from powerlines while maneuvering at low altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN21FA410
- Event ID
- 20210910103836
- Case number
- CEN21FA410
- 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, 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: edbfd735e1b07b1009aa46db54c1cfea3a02a8e27d7b667214fff3fb0d46ef3a; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:33:56.958Z.