Robinson Helicopter R44 N4050P and Cessna 172M N88E accident near Las Vegas, Nevada

Probable cause

The student helicopter pilot’s failure to follow the tower controller’s landing instructions, which resulted in a midair collision.

NTSB analysis

The student pilot in the helicopter was conducting his first solo flight in the airport traffic pattern at a towered airport. The student pilot was cleared by the local LC2 controller (controller) to depart from taxiway Papa, which parallels the north side of runway 30R, and to fly the taxiway Papa option, which was a closed traffic pattern to the taxiway. After several successful full-stop landings to taxiway Papa, the controller instructed the accident helicopter to, when able, make a right turn on taxiway Kilo, and that landing on the east ramp was at the pilot’s own risk. However, the helicopter pilot reported that he mistakenly flew an approach to runway 30R, rather than taxiway Papa; he then terminated the approach in a hover over the runway. Video surveillance footage shows that the nose of the helicopter was oriented in the landing direction; the student pilot reported being unaware that an airplane was on approach to land on the runway. The airplane then collided with the aft section of the skids and the helicopter pitched up, rotated left about 90° and landed upright on the runway.

The accident airplane was on a right downwind to land on runway 30R when the controller advised the pilot of the helicopter traffic operating on taxiway Papa. The airplane pilot stated that she made visual contact with the helicopter and that it appeared to be operating on taxiway Papa. During the turn onto the base leg for runway 30R, the right wing blocked the instructor’s view of the runway and she lost sight of the helicopter. The instructor stated that as they turned onto final approach, she was assisting the student in maintaining airspeed and the glide slope while managing the flap setting. She stated that a moment later, while approaching the runway threshold, she saw the helicopter and it appeared to be hovering over runway 30R, about 100-300 ft past the runway numbers, and not on taxiway Papa. The instructor recalled that it was too late to abort the landing by the time she realized the helicopter’s position, and elected to touch down underneath the helicopter. The airplane’s left wing collided with the skids of the helicopter, the fuselage rotated left, and the wing struck the ground, sustaining substantial damage to the spar.

After hearing the helicopter’s call sign to acknowledge the instruction, the controller repeated the instruction and “observed [the] helicopter hovering over Taxiway Papa very slowly drifting towards a right turn on Kilo.” After walking across the tower to view an aircraft entering the pattern, she returned to observe that the Cessna had, “cranked the wheels all the way to the left to avoid the helicopter.” At that time, the helicopter landed on the runway, right in front of the Cessna, and the airplane “tipped on the wing, and for a minute, it looked like it would go upside-down” before turning upright again.

The student pilot’s mistaken approach to runway 30R, rather than the taxiway where he was cleared to land (and where he had conducted previous full-stop landings), put him directly in the path of, and facing away from, the approaching airplane.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for WPR23LA041 for the full record.