Two helicopters collided midair near a small airport in Oregon on the afternoon of October 29, killing all three people aboard and forcing the closure of a nearby highway as emergency crews responded.
Investigators were combing through debris scattered across a field in northwest Oregon on Thursday after the collision, officials said.
Texas flight instructor Maddie Aasbo, 22, and Oregon pilot Tyler Sturdevant, 38, died in the crash, as well as a student pilot from the United Kingdom, Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott said during a news conference.
Aasbo was in one helicopter with the student pilot and Sturdevant was the sole occupant of the other, the sheriff said.
The aircraft crashed to the ground in a private farm field near McMinnville Municipal Airport, with a red helicopter left crumpled in pieces and a green helicopter lying upside down. McMinnville is about 40 miles southwest of Portland.
A one-mile stretch of nearby Highway 233 was closed due to the crash, the Oregon Department of Transportation said Thursday afternoon, with no estimate for reopening.
Leo Rodriguez said he called 911 after witnessing the crash from his family vineyard.
“All of a sudden I hear this big boom and this metal breaking, and I look up and just see these two helicopters just collided in mid-air,” he told CNN affiliate KPTV.
“It took me a while for my brain to figure out what I was seeing. You don’t see this every day. They twisted and fell to the ground.”
The sheriff’s office asked the public to avoid the area and have “patience as we respond to this critical incident.”
