CEN25LA067 · Robinson Helicopter R44
Galveston Helicopter Adventures Robinson Helicopter R44 · Accident: dynamic rollover during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN25LA067
- 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
- 0
- 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
- N441HQ
- Operator
- Galveston Helicopter Adventures
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 22 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
- 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Due to recent precipitation in the area, the heliport, consisting of a flat grass, artificial turf and dirt field, was soft. The private heliport, that is equipped with a windsock, is located about 800 ft away from the Gulf of Mexico. Due to the soft ground conditions, the operator’s fuel truck was parked farther away from the helipad. The pilot reported the purpose of the flight was to reposition the helicopter from the current helipad to another helipad at the heliport, to be near the fuel truck to obtain fuel. At the time of the takeoff, the pilot reported the wind condition originating from about 340°, was 16 to 18 kts, with gusts of 25 to 26 kts. As the pilot initiated the takeoff from the artificial turf helipad with the helicopter oriented to the north, the pilot reported the wind “helped push” the helicopter slightly rearward. During the rearward movement, the right skid extension became embedded in the artificial turf, the helicopter entered a dynamic rollover sequence, and the helicopter came to rest on its right side. The pilot was able to egress from the front right seat via the fractured windshield.
The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the main rotor system, the fuselage, the tailcone, and the empennage. The pilot reported there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe or the engine that would have precluded normal operation. According to the airframe manufacturer, there are no published wind limitations for starting and takeoff, however, in ground effect hover controllability has been substantiated in a 17 kt wind from any direction up to 9,600 ft density altitude. The operator did not have any published wind limitations for starting and takeoff, however the operator reported that the wind condition is typically 15 to 25 kts at the heliport. A review of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular 150/5390-2D Heliport Design did not find any published guidance on the usage of artificial turf at heliports, nor was any published guidance found in the FAA Helicopter Flying Handbook FAA-H-8083-21B regarding artificial turf hazards with dynamic rollover.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain terrain clearance during the takeoff from the helipad in high and gusting wind conditions, that resulted in the right skid extension embedding in the artificial turf, and a subsequent dynamic rollover sequence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN25LA067
- Event ID
- 20241231199496
- Case number
- CEN25LA067
- 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: ceb5fd38ea42c534fb9b7e4e6e7b488943297a010ced23e102ce287424fada98; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:34:29.392Z.