Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA II N7041X incident near Phoenix, Arizona

Probable cause

The failure of the fanshaft due to fatigue.

NTSB analysis

The private pilot reported that he was practicing for the commercial pilot helicopter examination and was operating in the airport traffic pattern. The pilot stated that, while entering downwind, he climbed the helicopter to 1,900 ft and was accelerating it to 75 knots when he felt an "abnormal vibration" and smelled "something…burning." The low rotor rpm light illuminated, and the low rotor rpm horn sounded. He subsequently entered an autorotation, made an emergency call, and landed successfully off the runway on dirt.

Postaccident examination of the helicopter revealed that the fanshaft had fractured circumferentially; the helicopter had a total time of 337 hours. Examination of the fanshaft revealed a crack in the fanwheel's base, which had beach marks that ran from the fanshaft's bearing surface out and down to the mounting surface, consistent with fatigue. The roller bearings and the races bearing surfaces had minor surface damage. The bearings and races were cut away from the fan shaft, which revealed a v-shaped fracture surface that had two cracks emanating from it. This area had sustained damage from the two halves contacting each other with every rotation of the crankshaft, and some material was missing. The fracture origin could not be determined due to the damage. The only anomaly identified during the examination was that the fanwheel was out of balance; however, this likely resulted from the fanshaft failure.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for WPR15IA080 for the full record.