NTSB Report of Frederick Mid-Air Crash Shows Pilot Never Saw Helicopter
A preliminary report of the fatal crash of a helicopter and plane in Frederick Oct. 23 indicates that the pilot of the plane may not have seen the third helicopter reported in the area as he prepared to land.
The National Transportation Safety Board recently released its preliminary report of the fatal crash that killed all three aboard the helicopter owned by Advanced Helicopter Concepts and injured two people in the Cirrus airplane.
“The preliminary report is only factual information that has not been analyzed and therefore any interpretations from NTSB would be speculative and analytical. The NTSB never speculates and the investigation is not at a point where the information is being analyzed,” NTSB Spokesman Keith Holloway told MyMCMedia Monday.
According to the report, at 3:35 p.m., “the local controller instructed the airplane to report midfield left downwind for runway 30 and said, “I have three helicopters below ya in the uh traffic pattern”. The report goes on to cite at 3:37 p.m., “the pilot of the airplane acknowledged the request to report midfield downwind and stated he had two of the helicopters in sight. Immediately after that transmission, at 1537:34, the local controller said, “Alright uh two echo sierra, I have ya in sight runway three zero, maintain your altitude to…until turning base, cleared to land.”
The next entry in the report is at 3:37 p.m. where a helicopter pilot reports that an airplane and helicopter were both “down.”
The report says that witnesses saw the aircraft converge at the same altitude. According to the report one witness aid the helicopter appeared to being a stationary hover as the airplane approached it and the two subsequently collided.
Two Montgomery County men were in the airplane involved in the incident. They are: Scott V. Graeves, 55, of Brookeville, and Gilbert L. Porter, 75, of Sandy Spring. Graeves was the pilot of the airplane and Porter was his passenger.
The full NTSB investigation can take 12-18 months to complete, according to Holloway.
NTSB Report of Frederick Mid-Air Crash Shows Pilot Never Saw Helicopter
A preliminary report of the fatal crash of a helicopter and plane in Frederick Oct. 23 indicates that the pilot of the plane may not have seen the third helicopter reported in the area as he prepared to land. The National Transportation Safety Board recently released its preliminary report of the fatal crash that killed […]
Three Dead, Two Injured When Plane and Helicopter Collide in Frederick
UPDATED, Oct. 24, 11:00 a.m. – Police have released the names of the three people who died when their helicopter collided with a Cirrus SR 22 airplane near the Frederick Municipal Airport Thursday afternoon. The three victims are: Christopher D. Parsons, 29, of Westminster; William Jenkins, 47, of Morrison, Colo., and Breandan J. MacFawn, 35, of Cumberland. […]
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