Allentown Helicopter Crash Report Shows Warning Light, Alarm Sounded After Takeoff

Sept. 19, 2019

Shortly after a helicopter took off from Lehigh Valley International Airport on Aug. 11, a cockpit light warning of low rotor speed flashed on and a horn activated.

Moments later, the helicopter collided with an industrial park building on Postal Road and crashed to the ground, seriously injuring the pilot and passenger.

Those details are contained in a preliminary report on the crash released this week by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Pilot Matt McMillan, who flies for Ace Pilot aviation training school at the airport, and passenger Tim Brown took off shortly after 2 p.m. for an aerial tour of the Lehigh Valley. The flight was a birthday gift to Brown from his wife.

Minutes later, McMillan radioed “Mayday, mayday, mayday, three one alpha going down."

A review of cockpit video footage “showed the pilot conducting checklist items before departure while the engine was operating,” the report says. "The helicopter was brought to a hover and a right hovering 90 degree turn was performed. The flight instructor began to fly low over the field before making a left banking turn around an airport hangar while starting a climb.

“When the helicopter reached about 300 feet above ground level, a low rotor speed warning light was observed and an audible horn activated. The helicopter collided with a building shortly thereafter.”

The severely damaged helicopter, a 14-year-old Schweizer 269C-1, is still being examined. The report offered no conclusion about the cause of the impact.

Brown was thrown from the helicopter. McMillan was trapped in the wreckage. They were assisted by two passersby, one a retired Army medic.

McMillan, a North Carolina native who lives in Allentown, sustained a traumatic brain injury and a fractured spine. According to an Aug. 29 post on a GoFundMe page set up to help with his expenses, he was able to walk nine days after the accident and suffered no permanent cognitive damage. He has been released from the hospital and was to remain in a back brace and cervical braces for six weeks, the post said.

The NTSB report said the passenger had “minor injuries,” but a family friend — Emil Giordano, a retired judge and attorney — said Brown, 51, of Lower Macungie Township, sustained serious injuries to three vertebrae, a severe foot injury that became infected, and a broken rib. Giordano is representing Brown, who was discharged from the hospital several days after the crash.

NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson could not comment specifically on the report, but said the characterization of the injuries as minor may have stemmed from early reporting and may be updated in the final report. Emergency officials had initially reported the victims were not seriously injured.

Brown is a retired Cedar Crest College arts professor who now works at the Macungie Institute, an educational center in that borough. Giordano said he is “slowly recovering” and hopes to return to part-time work soon.

Giordano said he has retained an aviation expert from Bucks County to conduct his own inquiry.

Ace Pilot has refused to comment on the incident and could not immediately be reached.

An NTSB database dating back to 1985 lists more than 200 accidents involving the Schweizer 269C, including 19 involving fatalities.

One incident, in June 2014, involved an Ace Pilot craft that developed “ground resonance” — a rotor imbalance — when the student pilot shut down the engines after a 40-minute flight at LVIA.

The craft “shook itself apart,” in the words of the report, which blamed the incident on “inadequate inspection and maintenance of the helicopter’s landing gear dampers.”

———

©2019 The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.)

Visit The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) at www.mcall.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.