ERA23LA172 · Helicopteres Guimbal CABRI G2
Austin Peay State University Helicopteres Guimbal CABRI G2 · Accident: dynamic rollover while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA23LA172
- 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
Helicopteres Guimbal CABRI G2
- Aircraft type
- Guimbal CABRI G2
- 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
- N242JL
- Operator
- Austin Peay State University
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Built the same year (2023)
- 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 › 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 instructor of the helicopter reported that the student pilot was taking his second lesson, learning to hover over a grass area at the airport. The flight instructor was operating the collective and anti-torque pedals, while the student pilot was operating the cyclic. The student pilot made an abrupt rearward movement with the cyclic. The flight instructor increased throttle and raised the collected to gain height; however, the right rear skid contacted the ground, resulting in a dynamic rollover. The flight instructor added that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions with the helicopter and that in the future, he should initiate hover training at a higher height. Examination of the helicopter by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed substantial damage to the main rotor blades, fuselage, and tailboom.
Probable cause
The flight instructor’s inadequate remedial action following an abrupt control input by the student pilot, which resulted in abnormal contact with the ground and a dynamic rollover.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA23LA172
- Event ID
- 20230329106977
- Case number
- ERA23LA172
- 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: 49b1729e9ce25460af0759ea240f7cb3b3effe4589253df1bbd871308d6cb3d3; retrieved 2026-09-16T17:28:03.518Z.