NTSB CAROL · Event
Event NYC87FA160
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
A LOSS OF CONTROL IN FLIGHT FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Factual narrative
THE STUDENT & FLT INSTRUCTOR (CFI) TOOK OFF ON A TRAINING FLT IN A ROBINSON R22 MARINER (FLOAT EQUIPPED) HELICOPTER. DRG THE RETURN FLT FM A PRACTICE AREA, THE HELICOPTER CRASHED. BFR THE ACDNT, 2 WITNESSES HEARD THE HELICOPTER, BUT DID NOT SEE IT UNTIL AFTER THEY HEARD AN UNUSUAL NOISE. ONE WITNESS SAID HE 'HEARD A LOUD PING, LIKE METAL AGAINST METAL.' AT ABOUT THAT TIME, BOTH WITNESSES NOTED AN INTERUPTION IN ENG PWR & SAW PIECES COMING OFF THE HELICOPTER AS IT FELL TO THE GND. IT CRASHED IN AN INVERTED ATTITUDE & BURNED. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES HAD STRUCK THE TAIL BOOM & THE ENTIRE TAIL ASSEMBLY (INCLUDING STABILIZERS, TAIL ROTOR GEAR BOX & TAIL ROTOR) HAD SEPD. THE TAIL ASSEMBLY FELL TO THE GND APRX 250' FM THE MAIN WRECKAGE. NO PRE-EXISTING MECH PROBLEMS OR SEVERE MAST BUMPING WERE EVIDENT. THE CFI HAD 451 HRS OF FLT TIME, ALL IN R22 HELICOPTERS. IN THE PREV 5 DAYS, HE HAD FLOWN 2 HRS IN FLOAT EQUIPPED (MARINER) R22'S & HAD MADE WATER LANDINGS, BUT NO INSTRUCTION IN THE MARINER OR ITS DIFFERENCES WAS VERIFIED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1987_NYC87FA160.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.
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