CEN24LA303 · Robinson Helicopter R44
Seaton Flying Services Robinson Helicopter R44 · Accident during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN24LA303
- 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
- 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 R44
- 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
- N225ML
- Operator
- Seaton Flying Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 17 years (built 2007)
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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 power plant
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After takeoff from an agricultural load truck in a helicopter loaded with mixed liquid product to apply to a corn field, the pilot noticed a drop in rotor rpm. The pilot followed an area of terrain that sloped downward in an attempt to gain airspeed. The pilot attempted to increase rotor rpm but was unsuccessful. The pilot flared the helicopter while attempting to land; however, the helicopter impacted an area of rising terrain and came to rest on its left side. The pilot was able to exit the helicopter without further incident. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, main rotor system, tail cone, and tail rotor system. Examination of the helicopter and engine revealed no indication of a pre-impact malfunction or failure that would have precluded normal operation. The governor system components were tested and no failures or malfunctions were found. Although the atmospheric conditions at the time of the accident were conducive to serious icing at glide power, the reported power loss occurred while at takeoff power. Based on the available evidence, the reason for the loss of engine power described by the pilot could not be determined.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power during takeoff for reasons that could not be determined, resulting in impact with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN24LA303
- Event ID
- 20240805194849
- Case number
- CEN24LA303
- 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: b48c21cbf86aa0be536b838e47b4107a77437d3bda7d50a046418f16118f1d61; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:08:08.460Z.