WPR22LA059 · Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA
TCWH Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) while maneuvering
From Hachita, NM (private airstrip) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR22LA059
- 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 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
- N7116L
- Operator
- TCWH
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hachita, NM (private airstrip)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 22 years (built 1999)
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot departed for a cattle roundup flight of a herd of cows and a single bull. As he approached the herd, with the intention of driving the cattle into the corral, the bull departed and headed toward an area covered with heavy mesquite brush. The pilot circled the area, and stopped the bull under a large mesquite bush, however, while at a hover the bull made a move to go behind the helicopter and the pilot maneuvered the helicopter aft and in so doing the tail rotor contacted a small mesquite limb approximately 1/2 inch in diameter. The impact resulted in a catastrophic failure of the tail rotor system, which separated from the tailboom. The helicopter began to spin, and the pilot applied correct control inputs and reduced engine power. The helicopter then landed hard in a level attitude, spreading the skids and deforming the lower fuselage structure. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to adequately monitor the environment during a low level operation, which resulted in collision with vegetation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR22LA059
- Event ID
- 20211207104362
- Case number
- WPR22LA059
- 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: 480ace7485300aa56dfeb33c9c54eff54eebd279cc64ae622e925d3591341bf4; retrieved 2026-09-16T14:48:47.925Z.