Federal investigators in Oregon will work to determine why a helicopter on a test flight collided with another chopper flown by a young instructor and her student, killing all three people aboard both aircraft.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday morning that its team was on its way to examine the wreckage near the airport in McMinnville, about an hour’s drive southwest of Portland. The town lies in the broad, flat Willamette Valley near the foothills of the Coast Range, in the heart of Oregon’s wine country.
The crash happened around 2 p.m. Thursday on a cloudy day and left behind a crumpled red helicopter in pieces in a farm field and a green helicopter that came to rest upside down.
Few details are immediately available about why the smaller Robinson R22 helicopter collided with the Airbus AS350B3 helicopter that the NTSB said was on a maintenance flight that is typically done after maintenance or repair. The Robinson was on an instructional flight.
The victims included 38-year-old Tyler Sturdevant, a pilot from Oregon, 22-year-old Maddie Aasbo, a flight instructor from Texas, and a 31-year-old student pilot from the United Kingdom, whose name has not been released, Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott said during a news conference. Aasbo and the U.K. student pilot were on the Robinson helicopter, while Sturdevant was on the Airbus.
The owners of the two helicopters — Jerry Trimble Helicopters and Precision — both said they are cooperating with authorities on the investigation while trying to help the grieving families of the victims.
The Jerry Trimble school offers everything from demo flights for first-time flyers to advanced training. Precision is a helicopter charter and maintenance company that also helps fly drone missions for the military, according to its website.
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