24 Jan 2020: Robinson R22 BETA — Pilot

24 Jan 2020: Robinson R22 BETA (N8364Y) — Pilot

No fatalities • Charlotte, TX, United States

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from a powerline during landing.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On January 24, 2020, at 1750 central standard time, a Robinson R22 helicopter, N8364Y, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Charlotte, Texas. The commercial pilot sustained serious injuries. The helicopter was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.

The pilot stated that, after he had finished herding animals into a pen at the family farm, he took off and saw several feral hogs in an adjacent pasture. He turned the helicopter back to land so that he could pick up a helper to eradicate the hogs from the pasture. The pilot stated that the sun was in his eyes and dust had kicked up from the helicopter's rotor wash. The pilot made a pedal turn, and the tail rotor impacted a powerline next to a road. The helicopter began to spin, the pilot pulled back on the cyclic and lowered the collective, and the helicopter subsequently impacted the ground. No preaccident mechanical anomalies were reported with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.

Contributing factors

  • Pilot
  • Contributed to outcome
  • Contributed to outcome

Conditions

Weather
VMC

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.