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ERA21LA016

2020-10-10 · Woodstock, Connecticut, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport C44

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain control of the helicopter while attempting to land on a trailer in gusting wind conditions, which resulted in a dynamic rollover.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that he was attempting to land the helicopter on a trailer when a gust of wind pushed the helicopter and the left skid got caught under the side of the trailer. The helicopter entered a dynamic rollover and impacted the ground resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage, main rotor blades, tailboom and the tail rotor. The wind speed reported at an airport located about 14 nautical miles from the accident site was 11 knots with gusts up to 20 knots. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
  • — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Effect on operation

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_ERA21LA016.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.