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Atlas / NTSB / ERA14CA217

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA14CA217

2014-05-01 Frederick, Maryland, United States Airport · FDK Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N802CP

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 182T

Year of manufacture

2021

Engine

LYCOMING IO-540-AB1A5 (230 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20210312

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AAE98B

Registrant of record

CIVIL AIR PATROL

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the hover, and the flight instructors lack of remedial action, resulting in a dynamic rollover and structural damage to the helicopter.

Factual narrative

According to the flight instructor, his student was practicing hover operations over a grassy area of the airport. This was the first flight in a helicopter for the student pilot. The helicopter drifted to the right while descending. The right skid contacted the grass and the helicopter rolled to the right and the main rotor blades contacted the ground. The helicopter continued to roll over and came to rest on its right side. An inspector from the Federal Aviation Administration examined the helicopter and confirmed substantial damage to the fuselage, tail boom, and main rotor blades. The pilots reported no pre-impact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation. According to the flight instructor, his student was practicing hover operations over a grassy area of the airport. This was the first flight in a helicopter for the student pilot. The helicopter drifted to the right while descending. The right skid contacted the grass and the helicopter rolled to the right and the main rotor blades contacted the ground. The helicopter continued to roll over and came to rest on its right side. An inspector from the Federal Aviation Administration examined the helicopter and confirmed substantial damage to the fuselage, tail boom, and main rotor blades. The pilots reported no pre-impact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation. 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).

  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student/instructed pilot - C
  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Lack of action-Instructor/check pilot - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2014_ERA14CA217.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). 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 ↗