NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA25LA059
Registry · N422RH
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
BELL 206B
Year of manufacture
1981 · 43 years old at event
TCDS
H2SW · BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON CANADA LTD
Engine
ALLISON 250 SER 250HP (250 hp)
Seats / Engines
5 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19810305
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A5048C
Registrant of record
JAMES V PAIGE JR DEVELOPMENT CORP
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s failure to maintain yaw control during a tailwind approach, which resulted in a loss of tail rotor effectiveness, an uncommanded spin, and subsequent hard landing.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that during the approach to land, he initiated a left turn to align with the wind and landing pad when the helicopter entered an uncommanded right spin. He attributed the loss of control to an 18-knot tailwind and described the event as consistent with a loss of tail rotor effectiveness. He was unable to regain control, and the helicopter descended in a spiraling right turn before impacting the ground. A post-accident review of photographs by the NTSB investigator confirmed that the helicopter sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no pre-accident 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).
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Yaw control-Not attained/maintained
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Tailwind-Effect on operation
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2024_ERA25LA059.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 (loss of control). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2022 · Accident report
Loss of Control on Takeoff in Icing Conditions — Citation 560XL
Cessna Citation 560XL fatal takeoff icing accident, March 2018. Investigation of a Citation 560XL loss-of-control takeoff accident in icing conditions.
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aviation)
ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH
Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Presentation
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
Abstract—We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Conference Paper
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗