US investigators probe why two helicopters collided in mid-air over Oregon, killing a British student pilot and two others
A crashed aircraft in a field near McMinnville Municipal Airport, Oregon, where a witness on a barn roof saw two helicopters collide and plunge to the ground just outside the airport perimeter.Wreckage of a helicopter in a field near McMinnville Municipal Airport, Oregon, where the National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into what caused two helicopters to collide midair.
Two helicopters collided at roughly 2.15pm on Thursday near McMinnville Municipal Airport, some 35 miles southwest of Portland, leaving three people dead: Maddie Aasbo, a 22-year-old Texas flight instructor; Tyler Sturdevant, 38, an Oregon pilot; and an unnamed 31-year-old British student. The National Transportation Safety Board announced on Friday that investigators were en route to the farm field where the wreckage came to rest.
Sturdevant had been piloting an Airbus AS350B3 on a maintenance flight and held a designated pilot examiner role with the FAA.
Aasbo was conducting a lesson with the British student aboard a Robinson R22 when the two aircraft struck each other; a vineyard worker watching from a barn roof said one helicopter was 'dropping straight down'.
The British consulate and the FBI are helping local authorities contact the UK student's next of kin before his identity is released.
