NTSB CAROL · Event
Event CEN25LA359
Registry · N442PR
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
ROBINSON HELICOPTER R44 II
Year of manufacture
2006 · 19 years old at event
TCDS
H11NM · ROBINSON HELICOPTER CO
Engine
CONT MOTOR IO-540 SER (380 hp)
Seats / Engines
4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
20060524
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A55360
Registrant of record
A&E AERIAL LLC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s inadequate fuel planning which resulted in a total loss of power due to fuel exhaustion. Contributing to the accident was the landing zone being unlit.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that while enroute, about two minutes from his planned landing zone, the low-fuel light illuminated. He flew past the intended landing zone, which was unlit, and continued searching for the landing zone until the engine suffered a total loss of power due to fuel exhaustion. The pilot initiated an autorotation, and, while searching for a landing reference, the helicopter impacted a power pole. The helicopter came to rest upright and sustained substantial damage to the tail boom, fuselage, and main rotor system. The pilot reported that the accident could have been prevented by monitoring the fuel level and having lighting at his landing zone. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Planning/preparation-Fuel planning-Pilot
- — Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid level
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Pole-Contributed to outcome
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2025_CEN25LA359.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel exhaustion). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- AOPA Air Safety Institute 2023 · Safety advisor
Safety Advisor: Fuel Awareness
AOPA Air Safety Institute safety advisor on preventing fuel-exhaustion and fuel-starvation accidents in general aviation. Covers pre-flight fuel planning, reserve requirements (14 CFR 91.151, 91.167),…
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Abstract
U.S. Civil Rotorcraft Accidents, 1963 through 1997
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recorded 8,436 rotorcraft accidents during the period mid - 1963 through the end of 1997.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Contractor Report (CR)
A study of carburetor/induction system icing in general aviation accidents
An assessment of the frequency and severity of carburetor/induction icing in general-aviation accidents was performed. The available literature and accident data from the National Transportation Safet…
- NASA NTRS 2018 · Other
Parachuting to Safety
NASA's Langley Research Center awarded Ballistic Recovery Systems, Inc., three Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts to research and develop a new, low cost, lightweight recovery system …
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗