CEN25LA031 · Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA
Veracity Aviation Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Pearland Regional Airport (LVJ) to Pearland Regional Airport (LVJ)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN25LA031
- 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
- N7521Z
- Operator
- Veracity Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pearland Regional Airport (LVJ), Pearland, TXTo Pearland Regional Airport (LVJ), Pearland, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 19 years (built 2005)
- 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that he increased engine power to lift off and initiated a pedal turn toward the adjacent taxiway. He recalled that the helicopter made a “violent lurch” to the right, so he lowered the collective abruptly but that did not seem to make any difference. He did not remember anything further. Airport surveillance video footage captured the helicopter lift off and translate a short distance to the right. The right skid appeared to contact the ground again, and the helicopter immediately began rotating to the right. This was accompanied by dramatic pitch oscillations. The aft portion of the tailboom impacted the paved ramp surface, and the tailboom and empennage separated. Rotation of the helicopter continued until it collided with a nearby parked airplane. The helicopter sustained damage to both main rotor blades, the tailboom, tail rotor assembly, and the empennage. An examination helicopter did not reveal any preimpact anomalies consistent with an inability to maintain control of the helicopter. A review of the surveillance video indicated that the helicopter began a dynamic rollover when the right skid dragged on the ground immediately after lifting off. Based on the response of the helicopter, the pilot likely increased collective pitch to increase height but did not provide sufficient left anti-torque pedal input to counter the increased torque. The pilot was unable to regain control of the helicopter before it impacted the ground.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain control of the helicopter during lift off.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN25LA031
- Event ID
- 20241028195385
- Case number
- CEN25LA031
- 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: afcba8fa141ce6e51b7ad02b29778ea979c6c018ea19a422a8536079d1b3da39; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:25:04.764Z.