Pilot 'heard bangs' before helicopter crashed into Florida home, killing two
A pilot claims he heard loud bands before a medical rescue helicopter crashed into an apartment, leaving two dead.
The medical rescue helicopter caught fire and broke apart shortly after takeoff before crashing into a Pompano Beach apartment complex on August 28 in Florida, killing the paramedic captain on board and a resident on the ground. Two others on board and two other people at the apartment complex were injured.
The twin-engine Broward County Fire-Rescue helicopter had just taken off when pilot Daron Roche said he heard a bang, a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report said. Roche said he saw on his control panel that one engine’s temperature was rising.
Roche radioed air traffic controllers to alert them to an emergency and tried to return to the suburban Fort Lauderdale airport. The fire warning light was illuminated and he activated the suppression system but the temperature gauge kept rising.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office Fire Rescue helicopter crashed into an apartment building in Pompano Beach (CBS News)
The crash was reported just after 8:45 a.m. in the area of North Dixie Highway and Atlantic Boulevard (CBS News)Sheriff Tony said that even as the crew members were declaring a mayday to the airport's control tower and trying to save their helicopter, they were also radioing paramedics at the medical emergency to let them know they would have to take the patient to the hospital.
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"We are talking about the character of these men", he said. "As they were fighting for their lives, they were thinking about somebody else." The three-member crew was heading to an emergency medical rescue to take the patient to the hospital. A video posted online shows flames coming from the midsection of the helicopter as it is trailed by a long plume of smoke.
The helicopter then appears to break in half as it begins to spiral, plunging down the apartment near Fort Lauderdale. People in the footage can be heard exclaiming "oh my god" repeatedly as the helicopter begins to lose control before falling to the ground. Reports indicate passengers jumped from the helicopter and two men were seen coming down from the roof of the building with pained expressions on their faces.
One of the two people killed has been named as fire and rescue Captain Terryson Jackson. Jackson, 49 (AP)Victoria Walczak, who was inside the apartment building, said the crash was louder than thunder. "I thought a bomb went off," she told the newspaper. The National Transportation Safety Board is continuing to investigate.
The helicopter was built in 1999 and its engines were rebuilt seven years ago, the report said. The helicopter was last inspected in May. The safety board has not yet determined what caused the fire. Its investigations usually take about a year to complete, reports ABC.
One of the two people killed has been named as fire and rescue Captain Terryson Jackson. Jackson, 49. Sheriff Tony, who also oversees the county's fire department, said: "Terryson was a rock star, he was one of the best of us."
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