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Friday, June 12, 2009
UPDATED: Feds Investigating New Mexico Copter Crash that Killed Two
By Barry Massey
Associated Press
SANTA FE — Federal investigators have been asked to determine why a hiker and pilot killed when a State Police helicopter crashed in the snowy mountains of northern New Mexico were ejected from the chopper, the state's Public Safety secretary says.
An investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board's Denver office has arrived in Santa Fe to look into what caused the Tuesday night crash in rugged terrain at 12,000 feet in the Sangre de Cristo mountains.
The crash took place minutes after the helicopter picked up the stranded hiker, Megumi Yamamoto, a University of New Mexico physics graduate student from Tokyo.
The lone survivor, State Police Officer Wesley Cox, remained strapped into his seat as the aircraft tumbled down a rocky slope after hitting the ground. He was in satisfactory condition at a Santa Fe hospital Friday and is expected to recover from leg and back injuries.
Rescue teams found the bodies of Yamamoto and the pilot, Sgt. Andy Tingwall, on Thursday.
Public Safety Secretary John Denko, a longtime pilot who flies helicopters and airplanes, said he believes no deaths would have occurred had all occupants been contained in the helicopter.
"I want to find out whether that part of the cabin was torn off in some way on impact with the side of the mountain," Denko said Thursday. "That would explain why they were possibly torn out. Or was there some kind of a structural failure?"
Denko said he didn't think there was anything wrong mechanically with the helicopter.
Based on information from Cox, state police have said clouds suddenly settled in around the mountain Tuesday night, making it difficult for the pilot to see clearly.
The helicopter's tail rotor apparently struck a tree near the top of a ridge, lost altitude, slammed into a rocky slope, then rolled and broke apart, State Police Chief Faron Segotta said.
Cox had tightly strapped Yamamoto into a seat before belting himself into the helicopter, Segotta said.
But it's unknown where the two were sitting — side-by-side or across from each other. That could be an important question which could help reveal how the helicopter came apart. The helicopter has seats on both sides of the main compartment behind the cockpit.
The NTSB typically wants crash wreckage brought to a local facility for further examination, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said Friday.
But the wreckage is scattered down a slope that leads to a small alpine lake about 20 miles north of Santa Fe. No decisions have been made on whether it will be gathered and removed, Public Safety Department spokesman Peter Olson said.
The NTSB may issue a preliminary report by the end of next week on the circumstances of the crash, Holloway said. But a report with a determination on the crash's cause will likely take a year to 18 months, he said.
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