Innovator Technologies MOSQUITO XEL UNREG

Summary

On 29 September 2013 at about 15:09 local time, a Innovator Technologies MOSQUITO XEL registered UNREG was involved in an accident near Felda, Florida, United States. One person was on board and one was seriously injured. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

29 September 2013 at 15:09

Classification

Accident

Location

Felda, Florida, United States

Coordinates

26.5225, -81.5583

Aircraft

Innovator Technologies MOSQUITO XEL

Registration

UNREG

Category

Helicopter

Year built

2012

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Felda → Felda

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA13LA437

1 person was seriously injured.

The pilot’s loss of helicopter control while hovering for reasons that could not be determined during postaccident examination of the helicopter, which was limited due to postcrash fire damage.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

After about a 10-minute flight, the pilot returned to the airport and attempted to land the helicopter. A witness reported that, when the helicopter was about 30 ft above the ground, it seemed to be "unstable" and began to oscillate from side to side. The pilot then aborted the landing, flew for a few minutes, and then returned for landing. The witness reported that during this landing attempt, when the helicopter was again about 30 ft above the ground, it began spinning to the left and then impacted the ground. According to a friend of the pilot, about 2 months before the accident, the pilot had experienced a similar loss of control in the accident helicopter in which the helicopter rapidly spun to the left three times just before landing. The pilot then gained altitude, regained control, and flew away from the landing site. The pilot checked the controls and then came in and landed without incident. The pilot told his friend that, after the helicopter started spinning left, he shut off the automatic throttle governor and was able to recover. When the pilot was interviewed about 1.5 years after the accident, he reported that, during the previous flight when he lost helicopter control, he believed that he came in a little too fast and, since the governor did not work well and the helicopter did not have a lot of horsepower to correct or recover, that could have caused the spins. Regarding the accident, he stated that "I would like to think it was the helicopter, but it could have been me." The majority of the helicopter, including the engine governor and engine management system, was consumed by a postcrash fire and could not be examined. Examination of the surviving components did not reveal any evidence of a preexisting failure or malfunction of the flight control system or engine. Although the loss of control was consistent with the pilot failing to maintain control during the landing approach and experiencing a loss of tail rotor effectiveness, the postcrash fire damage precluded determination of whether a mechanical failure played a role in the loss of control.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.