Three people were killed on Thursday afternoon, October 29, when two helicopters collided in midair near McMinnville Municipal Airport in Yamhill County, Oregon, the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office announced. Emergency crews responded at about 2:15 p.m. local time, and officials confirmed that everyone aboard both aircraft died.
Source: KOIN via KCAU 9
The two aircraft — a Robinson R22 and an Airbus H125 — came down in a private farm field near Southeast Highway 154, also known as the Lafayette Highway, and Southeast Stringtown Road, a few miles from the airport. The Oregon Department of Transportation warned drivers that a nearby highway closure could be extended while crews worked at the scene, and motorists were asked to use alternate routes.
Who the victims were
Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott identified two of the dead on Thursday evening. Maddie Aasbo, 22, a flight instructor from Texas, and a 31-year-old student pilot from the United Kingdom were aboard the Robinson R22. The student's name is being withheld until family members have been notified. The pilot of the Airbus H125 was Tyler Delane Sturdevant, 38, of Newberg, Oregon, who was flying alone.
Readers should know that the first federal account of the crash divided the three people differently between the two aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration's preliminary statement put one person aboard the Robinson and two aboard the Airbus. The sheriff's identifications, released later on Thursday, place two people in the Robinson and one in the Airbus. Both accounts agree on the central fact: three people were aboard in total, and all three died.
The aircraft and the airport
According to the sheriff's office, the Robinson was a 1995 R22, a small two-seat helicopter widely used for flight training, and the Airbus was a 2018 H125, a larger single-engine type that can carry up to six people depending on its configuration. One of the helicopters belonged to Jerry Trimble Helicopters, a flight-training and rental company based at McMinnville Municipal Airport, the school said in a statement reported by CBS News.
McMinnville sits about 35 miles (56 kilometres) southwest of Portland and is home to about 34,000 people. Its municipal airport covers about 650 acres (263 hectares), has two paved runways and remained open on Thursday, according to its website. A witness told local television station Fox 12 that he was standing on the roof of a nearby barn when he saw the two helicopters strike each other.
What investigators will do next
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will lead the investigation, with help from the FAA, and federal investigators arrived at the scene on Thursday evening to examine the wreckage and gather records. Officials have not established what caused the collision: the helicopters' flight paths, altitudes and any communications before the crash have not been confirmed, and no mechanical failure or pilot error has been identified. The NTSB will determine the probable cause only after its full examination, a process that runs well beyond the first days of an inquiry.
Known: the time and place of the collision, the two aircraft types, and the names of two of the three victims, released by the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office. Not yet known: why the helicopters converged, and the identity of the British student pilot, which officials are withholding until family notification is complete.
For drivers and farming communities in the Willamette Valley, the immediate effect was local: road closures around the crash field and a heavy emergency presence through Thursday evening. For the wider flying community, the case is a reminder of how unforgiving the airspace around small, busy training airports can be — McMinnville's field mixes student flights, rentals and visiting aircraft on the same runways every day. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when the NTSB issues its first preliminary findings.