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Atlas / NTSB / WPR11CA011

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR11CA011

2010-10-12 Long Beach, California, United States Airport · LGB Serious 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N853DS

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

BOEING 737-800A

Seats / Engines

189 seats · 2 engines

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S ABB2D9

Registrant of record

BOEING CO

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot's failure to maintain an adequate drift control and skid clearance from the ground and the CFI's inadequate supervision while hovering, resulting in dynamic rollover.

Factual narrative

The certified flight instructor (CFI) and student pilot were practicing hovering. The student pilot had 6 hours total flight time, with all of his flight time being accrued in the accident make/model helicopter. During the hover, the right skid contacted the ground and the helicopter rolled onto its right side. The CFI reported that he delayed assuming control of the helicopter and allowed the helicopter to get too low during the maneuver. The certified flight instructor (CFI) and student pilot were practicing hovering. The student pilot had 6 hours total flight time, with all of his flight time being accrued in the accident make/model helicopter. During the hover, the right skid contacted the ground and the helicopter rolled onto its right side. The CFI reported that he delayed assuming control of the helicopter and allowed the helicopter to get too low during the maneuver. 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).

  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Delayed action-Instructor/check pilot - C
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student pilot - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Altitude-Not attained/maintained - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2010_WPR11CA011.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 or causal vocabulary (icing). 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 ↗