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Atlas / NTSB / DEN89IA067

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DEN89IA067

1989-01-22 SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, United States Airport · SLC None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N712PC

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

ROBINSON HELICOPTER R44 II

Year of manufacture

2004

TCDS

H11NM · ROBINSON HELICOPTER CO

Engine

LYCOMING IO-540-AE1A5 (260 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20140109

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A984C3

Registrant of record

HOLT HELICOPTERS INC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S ATTEMPT TO ALIGN THE AIRPLANE WITH THE RUNWAY AT AN ALTITUDE INSUFFICIENT FOR SAFE MANEUVERING, RESULTING IN THE NO. 1 ENGINE STRIKING THE RUNWAY. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS INCLUDE OBSCURED VISIBILITY DUE TO FOG, THE CAPTAIN'S LOSS OF DEPTH PERCEPTION, AND PILOT FATIGUE DUE TO DISRUPTED CIRCADIAN RHYTHM.

Factual narrative

PLT WAS EXECUTING CATEGORY I ILS APCH TO RWY 34L AFTER FLYING FROM HON TO SLC. PLT SAID HE 'CAME OFF GAUGES' AT 300 FT AGL EXPECTING TO SEE RWY BUT DIDN'T. AT 200 FT AGL, HE SAW RWY 150 FT TO LEFT BUT LOST ALL DEPTH PERCEPTION. PLT CONSIDERED EXECUTING MISSED APCH BUT FELT HE COULD ALIGN ACFT WITH RWY WITH ALT REMAINING. WHILE MANEUVERING, NO. 1 ENG STRUCK RWY, LEAVING 50-60 FT LONG, 1-INCH DEEP GOUGE. IN PREVIOUS 30 HR PERIOD, PLT HAD BEEN ON DUTY 18 HRS, 30 MIN, AND HAD FLOWN 13 HRS, 25 MIN. HE HAD BEEN OFF DUTY 11 HRS, 24 MIN, BUT HAD SLEPT ONLY 1 HR. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_DEN89IA067.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 (pilot fatigue). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗