Robinson R44 N843JB accident near Oak Island, North Carolina

Probable cause

The student pilot's failure to maintain a stabilized hover, resulting in a loss of control and an impact with terrain.

NTSB analysis

The flight instructor reported that the student pilot was asked to conduct several solo "pickups and set downs" on a grass area at the airport. The flight instructor exited the helicopter and observed the student pilot pick the helicopter up to a hover and set the helicopter back on the ground without incident. During the second iteration, the flight instructor observed the helicopter achieve a hover at 5 to 8 feet above ground level for several seconds. She reported that the helicopter then slowly yawed to the right and continued turning to the right until it was 270 degrees from its original heading.

The helicopter began to lose altitude, move forward, and the skids impacted the ground. She reported that the helicopter bounced back into the air after impacting the ground and rolled slightly to the left. The helicopter then abruptly rolled to the right, the nose came down, the main rotor blades impacted the ground, and the helicopter came to rest on its right side. After the impact, the flight instructor reported that she crawled inside of the cockpit to turn off the engine. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, main rotor system, tailboom, and horizontal stabilizer.

The student pilot reported that he did not recall the accident sequence of events. The flight instructor reported that after the accident, while at the hospital with the student pilot, he reported to her that "I should have been able to control it [the helicopter]."

The flight instructor verified that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aviation safety inspector who responded to the accident site, reported that he did not notice any mechanical control issues with the helicopter. He also reported that the engine had no signs of any issues and that witnesses stated that after the helicopter impacted the ground, the engine was still running.

As a safety recommendation, the flight instructor reported that her organization will increase the time allotment in their training syllabus to allow more emphasis to be placed on the importance of light control inputs and the catastrophic results that can occur from over controlling and abrupt inputs, particularly at a hover.

The FAA has published the Helicopter Flying Handbook FAA-H-8083-21 (2012). This handbook discusses techniques for hovering and states in part:

To maintain the helicopter in a stabilized hover, make small, smooth, coordinated corrections.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for GAA16CA160 for the full record.