Skip to content

CEN14CA017

2013-10-02 · Chicago, Illinois, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport IGQ

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The flight instructor's failure to take remedial action in a timely manner.

Factual narrative

The student pilot stated they had been practicing hovering for about 30 minutes, and were about two feet above the ground. He recalled that he was "controlling the cyclic and maybe the collective, but not the pedals." The flight instructor thought they were three to five feet above the ground. The helicopter experienced a pendular motion and began traveling backwards and to the right. The right skid made contact with the ground, which resulted in the tail impacting the ground and the helicopter rolling onto its side. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the tail rotor. The student pilot stated they had been practicing hovering for about 30 minutes, and were about two feet above the ground. He recalled that he was "controlling the cyclic and maybe the collective, but not the pedals." The flight instructor thought they were three to five feet above the ground. The helicopter experienced a pendular motion and began traveling backwards and to the right. The right skid made contact with the ground, which resulted in the tail impacting the ground and the helicopter rolling onto its side. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the tail rotor. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Lack of action-Instructor/check pilot - C
  • — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Altitude-Not attained/maintained

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2013_CEN14CA017.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). All research papers