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Atlas / NTSB / ERA25LA160

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA25LA160

2025-03-28 Chuluota, Florida, United States Airport · PVT None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N8318A

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

ROTORWAY INTL EXEC 162F

Year of manufacture

2011 · 14 years old at event

Engine

ROTORWAY RI 162F (150 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20111130

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AB5F82

Registrant of record

BURDETTE DOUGLAS PAT

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain lateral control of the helicopter during takeoff, which resulted in a dynamic rollover.

Factual narrative

The non-certificated pilot of the helicopter reported that the purpose of the flight was to practice takeoff, hover, and landing maneuvers from his private grass field. During takeoff, he increased the engine power and inadvertently applied right cyclic concurrently as he raised the collective. Subsequently, the helicopter’s right skid dug into the ground, resulting in a dynamic rollover. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to its main rotor blades and tail boom structure. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident 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-Lateral/bank control-Not attained/maintained
  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2025_ERA25LA160.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. 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 ↗