NTSB CAROL · Event
Event MIA07CA079
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The student pilot's inadvertent shutting off of the mixture control while performing the prelanding checks that resulted loss of engine power and a roll over during the subsequent forced landing.
Factual narrative
The flight instructor stated that he and his student were on downwind at an altitude of 500 feet, preparing to land the helicopter. He further stated that as they performed prelanding checks, the student pilot within the space of a second removed the guard and pulled the mixture, causing the helicopter's engine to cease operating. The instructor said he immediately entered autorotation, and further stated that the wind was coming from the left, i.e. from the south, and there was no place to turn left due to trees and a road, so he turned right. He said he then saw some trees so he continued to turn right to an open grove, and then started "full down." The student was depressing the right pedal, and the instructor said he continued to maintain rpm as high as possible for the full down, pushed forward, and affected the landing. He said the helicopter landed and continued with its nose to the left due to the right pedal being depressed by the student, and it rolled slightly on its right skid, then collapsed, and came to rest on its belly. The flight instructor stated that he and his student were on downwind at an altitude of 500 feet, preparing to land the helicopter. He further stated that as they performed prelanding checks, the student pilot within the space of a second removed the guard and pulled the mixture, causing the helicopter's engine to cease operating. The instructor said he immediately entered autorotation, and further stated that the wind was coming from the left, i.e. from the south, and there was no place to turn left due to trees and a road, so he turned right. He said he then saw some trees so he continued to turn right to an open grove, and then started "full down." The student was depressing the right pedal, and the instructor said he continued to maintain rpm as high as possible for the full down, pushed forward, and affected the landing. He said the helicopter landed and continued with its nose to the left due to the right pedal being depressed by the student, and it rolled slightly on its right skid, then collapsed, and came to rest on its belly. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2007_MIA07CA079.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.