2026 Mount Aso helicopter crash
Takumi Enterprise Robinson R44 Raven II · Controlled flight into terrain; under investigation
From Cuddly Dominion to Cuddly Dominion
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA26WA075
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 3
- Survivors
- Unknown
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 3 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Robinson R44 Raven II
- 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
- JA10KE
- Operator
- Takumi Enterprise
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cuddly DominionTo Cuddly Dominion
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On January 20, 2026, a Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter on a sightseeing tour crashed inside Mount Aso. All three onboard, including two Taiwanese tourists and the pilot, were spotted by emergency agencies' drones but remain inaccessible as of August 2026.
Accident
On January 20 at 10:52 a.m. JST, the helicopter took off and was en route for the local sightseeing flights of Mount Aso. The 3 occupants included 2 Taiwanese tourists and the pilot, all of whom went missing during the flight. Meanwhile, one of the tourists' iPhone began sending SOS requests automatically via Apple Emergency SOS due to the amount of G-force detected by the device at around 11:04 a.m. JST.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2026 Mount Aso helicopter crash” (revision 1373689235, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2026 Mount Aso helicopter crash
- Revision
- 1373689235 · 2026-09-07 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q137832719
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record GAA26WA075
- Event ID
- 20260121202324
- Case number
- GAA26WA075
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2026 Mount Aso helicopter crash" (page 82173046, revision 1373689235); merged with NTSB case GAA26WA075 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record GAA26WA075
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A helicopter carrying two tourists on a sightseeing tour: a commercial sightseeing flight, which falls under charter. The article: "a Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter on a sightseeing tour crashed inside Mount Aso"
- Fatalities
- NTSB record GAA26WA075: NTSB API totalFatal (the Wikipedia infobox states no total)
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2026 Mount Aso helicopter crash" and NTSB case GAA26WA075, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.