NTSB Investigating Robinson R44 II Accident Near Petersville, Alaska

The accident record lists substantial damage to the helicopter on 29 August 2025; the cause has not been determined.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 7, 2026, 10:13 a.m. ET

A sustained substantial damage in an accident near Petersville, Alaska, on 29 August 2025 at about 7:50 p.m. local time, according to the official accident record. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating and the cause has not been determined. The accident record identifies the aircraft as and the operator as , and classifies the flight as a Part 135 commuter or on-demand operation. The record does not list injury counts, which is usual for a preliminary filing. No casualty figures appear in the material reviewed for this report. Aircraft registry records list as a single-engine piston Robinson R44 II, serial number 10718, powered by a Lycoming IO-540 series engine, built in 2005 and 20 years old at the time of the accident. The registry lists the registered owner as ; the owner of record is not necessarily the operator of the flight, the pilot, or otherwise connected to it. Company material describes Pollux Aviation as an Alaska helicopter company founded in 1991, based at Wasilla with satellite operations listed at Seward, Naknek, Prudhoe Bay and Red Dog, holding FAA Part 135, Part 133, Part 137 and Part 145 certification and Robinson Factory Authorized Service Center status, offering training under the MatSu Heli Training brand, and doing contract flying for federal agencies including the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and USDA. The company website names David Holesapple as Director of Operations, appointed 2022; the investigation has made no finding connecting him to this accident. As a matter of record, one other case in the NTSB database involves the same owner: on 4 June 2025, a Robinson R66, N962MD, was involved in an accident at Kaparuk, Alaska, docketed ANC25FA044, with two fatalities. Separately, the NTSB database, which begins in 2008, contains 182 other cases involving the Robinson R44 II, of which 31 involved a fatality. Neither the operator history nor the type count says anything about the cause of this accident. Geographic reference data places Petersville in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough at a settlement elevation of 1,243 feet, and locates it 13 miles NW of Davidson Strip Airport (45AA), 15 miles SSE of Nugget Bench Airport (33AK) and 15 miles W of Rangeview Airstrip (US-0190); that locates the settlement, not the accident site. The NTSB investigation remains open.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Registration: N74435
Type: Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II — single-engine piston helicopter
Engines: LYCOMING IO-540 SER
Built: 2005-01-01 (20 years old)
Registered owner: Pollux Aviation LtdThe owner of record is not necessarily the operator, the pilot, or otherwise connected to the flight.
Terrain elevation: 1,243 ft
Nearest aerodrome: 13 miles NW of Davidson Strip Airport (45AA)

Sources

Revision history

Version 37 Aug 2026, 14:13current
Corrected the bearings to nearby aerodromes to match the reference data as given, and removed the 'still developing' framing now that the event is published.
Version 25 Aug 2026, 21:20
Removed personnel names not supported by the fact set (only the Director of Operations remains), corrected the garbled bearings to the nearby aerodromes, and added the operator's maintenance, training and federal-contract detail.
Version 15 Aug 2026, 21:16
First published.

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