NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA23LA172
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The flight instructor’s inadequate remedial action following an abrupt control input by the student pilot, which resulted in abnormal contact with the ground and a dynamic rollover.
Factual narrative
The flight instructor of the helicopter reported that the student pilot was taking his second lesson, learning to hover over a grass area at the airport. The flight instructor was operating the collective and anti-torque pedals, while the student pilot was operating the cyclic. The student pilot made an abrupt rearward movement with the cyclic. The flight instructor increased throttle and raised the collected to gain height; however, the right rear skid contacted the ground, resulting in a dynamic rollover. The flight instructor added that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions with the helicopter and that in the future, he should initiate hover training at a higher height. Examination of the helicopter by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed substantial damage to the main rotor blades, fuselage, and tailboom. 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-Action/decision-Action-Lack of action-Instructor/check pilot
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Pitch control-Not attained/maintained
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2023_ERA23LA172.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.