Apr. 27—The Mercy Flight helicopter that crashed Tuesday in a field in rural Genesee County, killing two seasoned pilots, was traveling at an altitude of about 2,000 feet when, according to witnesses, there was a "large boom and they saw the helicopter fall from the sky," a National Transportation Safety Board investigator said Wednesday.
The tail separated from the main body of the helicopter and was found about 300 feet away from the main wreckage, which would indicate the aircraft was falling apart before it hit the ground.
Multiple investigations are underway into the crash of the medical air ambulance that was on a routine training exercise when it fell to the ground in the Town of Elba.
It is far too early to determine a cause, but NTSB Investigator Aaron McCarter said some information has already come to light:
The helicopter, a Bell 429, a model commonly used for medical transportation, was on a training exercise Tuesday morning.
The aircraft took off from Genesee County Airport at about 11:15 a.m. The crash was reported at about 1 p.m.
Preliminary satellite data showed the helicopter was flying at about 2,000 feet most of the time it was in the air.
The aircraft was doing "pattern work," doing rectangles and other patterns, McCarter said, which would be typical for a training exercise.
They do not yet know who was flying the aircraft.
The wreckage was spread out over 2,000 feet on the ground.
"The main portion was fairly intact, although severely damaged," McCarter said.
There was a small fire burning when first responders arrived. That was quickly extinguished.
Both of the pilots were deceased when they were found, McCarter said.
The two pilots on board were previously identified as James E. Sauer, 60, of Churchville, and Stewart M. Dietrick, 60, of Prosper, Texas. Sauer was a Mercy Flight pilot, and Dietrick was an employee and pilot with Bell Helicopter.
No other people were on board and no one on the ground was hurt.
McCarter said the investigations were just starting. In addition to the NTSB, officials with the Federal Aviation Authority and representatives from Bell Helicopter were on scene to help.
He said the NTSB would be on the scene for three to five days to document the wreckage, talk to witnesses and to retrieve data from the helicopter's data recorder. The aircraft doesn't have a "black box," but the data recorders often have information that can be helpful in a crash investigation.
"The on-scene part is a very small part of the investigation," McCarter said. "Most of the work happens behind the scene."
He said investigators will remove the wreckage and reconstruct the helicopter in a hangar to try to literally piece together what happened. He said to expect a preliminary report in 10 days, and then a full report in about 12 months.
The investigation will focus on three parts, McCarter said. "The human, the machine and the environment."
McCarter pointed out that both of the pilots had a lot of professional flying experience.
"But what was their familiarity with the machine?" he asked.
He said investigators would look at the weather, but all indications are that conditions were mild. The National Weather Service said it was overcast with temperatures in the upper 40s, with winds of about 13 mph.
They will also look at possible problems with the aircraft itself, which would include physically examining the pieces and also researching maintenance.
McCarter said that the tail, which was found separated from the main wreckage, is a critical part of a helicopter.
"If it loses a tail rotor, that's what keeps the nose pointed in the correct direction," he said.
The tail rotor keeps the fuselage from spinning in the opposite direction of the main rotor, McCarter added.
"A helicopter has a lot of moving parts," he said.
State Police escorted journalists to the crash site Wednesday afternoon. Most of the helicopter was on the ground close to Norton Road. The tail was about 300 feet away in a farm field.
Tuesday's crash is the third Bell 429 helicopter accident to occur in New York State in the last seven months, and the second in Genesee County. It is the second fatal helicopter accident in the U.S. in the last year involving a Bell 429, after a Duke Energy worker died in April 2021. According to the United States Helicopter Safety Team website, there were 35 fatal helicopter accidents in the U.S. in 2021 and 32 in 2020.
Ron Goldman, an attorney with Los Angeles-based Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman, who has been involved in multiple lawsuits involving helicopter crashes, said that a day after a crash is always too early to jump to conclusions.
But, he said, it stood out to him that the two people aboard the helicopter were both "really experienced pilots."
"It's hard to swallow that there's pilot error in this case," Goldman said. "... You have two experienced pilots doing recurrent training. Unless somebody did something that is off the charts, there shouldn't be an accident here. But we don't know what happened. One has to be suspicious of some kind of mechanical failure in an event like this."
Goldman is not involved in the Elba accident, but was speaking as an expert on helicopter incidents. He is currently representing the family of Buffalo businessman Mark Croce, who died in a helicopter crash in Pennsylvania in 2020.
He said that the wreckage site would provide many clues to what happened.
"If they found stuff that's more than X number of yards away, then you have to start worrying: Was there a break up mid-flight? Does it look like a break up caused by stressors on the way down?" Goldman said.
"Every one of these pieces is a puzzle, and the pieces of the puzzle have to be brought together," he said.
News staff reporter Ben Tsujimoto contributed to this report.
___
(c)2022 The Buffalo News (Buffalo, N.Y.)
Visit The Buffalo News (Buffalo, N.Y.) at www.buffalonews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
