NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR24LA183
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The flight instructor’s unstabilized approach during an autorotation that resulted in hard landing.
Factual narrative
The flight instructor of the helicopter reported that, he initiated the autorotation from about 1,000 ft above ground level (agl). As they were descending toward the runway, the instructor noted his airspeed at 55 kts and a high rate of descent. He began the flare, but the rate of descent continued, so he attempted a power recovery. The helicopter continued to descend, and he raised the collective, to cushion the landing. The helicopter landed hard, resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage, tailboom and vertical stabilizer. The flight instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical 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).
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Instructor/check pilot
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Descent/approach/glide path-Not attained/maintained
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2024_WPR24LA183.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 (unstabilized approach). 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 2023 · Conference paper
Utilizing Deep Learning to Predict Unstabilized Approaches for General Aviation Aircraft
Unstabilized approaches pose a major hazard for general aviation aircraft. In the period from 2009 to 2019, 3,257 general aviation accidents occurred during the landing phase of flight in which loss o…
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2014 · Accident report
Crash during a Nighttime Nonprecision Instrument Approach — UPS 1354
UPS Flight 1354 (A300-600F) Birmingham AL, August 14, 2013. Investigation of UPS 1354 crash short of runway 18 at Birmingham.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗