Feb. 4--In the wake of the helicopter crash deaths of NBA legend, Kobe Bryant, and eight others, the Berks County aviation community put the spotlight on flight safety and crash rescue.
Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others died Jan. 26 when a helicopter they were in crashed on a hillside in Calabasas, Calif. Bryant was a standout at Lower Merion High School in Montgomery County.
When there is an aviation crash, some Berks firefighters are specially trained to rescue victims. The ones at Greenfields Fire Company in Bern Township are among of them. -- Advertisement -- Fire Chief Mahlon Auker said volunteer firefighters are focusing on safety issues during planning meetings for World War II weekend in June at Reading Regional Airport in Bern.
"With the Bryant situation, we are reminded that this could happen to anyone at any time," Auker said. "This is weighing heavy on our minds. It heightens our radar. Kobe was a great basketball player, a great father and a great person."
Auker said the first responders take classes learning how aircraft are put together and how to extricate victims.
"We take classes and study for mass fatalities," he said. "Every airport firefighter is trained."
Reading Regional is among 650 licensed airports and heliports in Pennsylvania.
The airport is equipped with a fire-rescue facility, two runways, and provide service for state police, medical facilities and military training.
There are 16 airports and heliports in Berks, including heliports at Reading Hospital and Penn State Health St. Joseph hospital. Helicopters also land at the airport as directed by an air traffic controller.
There are 50,000 to 60,000 landings and takeoffs from the airport each year, according to Terry Sroka, airport manager.
The Federal Aviation Administration provides licenses to pilots to fly helicopters.
PennDOT works with the FAA to ensure airports are safe by inspecting the airport grounds.
"PennDOT's role in aviation safety is to assure that the airports and heliports are established and maintained appropriately to accommodate the type of flight activities that are conducted at the facility," said Alexis Campbell, PennDOT press secretary.
The FAA is responsible for flight activities in the air, such as licensing pilots and mechanics and setting rules and procedures, Campbell said.
The FAA could not provide a breakdown of the number of pilots residing in Berks.
There have not been any major crashes or fatalities in nearly 50 years at the Reading airport.
The last fatality reported at the airport was during the remnants of Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972. However, there have been planes crashes elsewhere in Berks since then.
Sroka said that some pilots fly to the airport to dine at Klinger's in the terminal.
Sroka said the Bryant crash will not impact the World War II Weekend festivities. More than 20,000 tourists typically attend the three-day event.
"We are looking forward to a great show," he said of the weekend hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum on the airport grounds.
Trooper David C. Beohm, spokesman for Reading-based Troop L, said the state police helicopters are stored at a hangar at the Reading airport and used regularly to photograph fatal crashes, surveillance and for other police investigations in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Beohm said the loss of all nine victims in the Bryant helicopter crash is a tragedy, but cars may be more dangerous than helicopters.
"I don't know that flying is more dangerous than driving," the trooper said.
Boehm said for some individuals flying airplanes is a common way to commute to New York or other locations.
Reading Air School of Flight, a private aviation school next to the airport, declined to provide information about aircraft safety.
The Mid-Atlantic Museum volunteers said the Bryant crash is not going to prevent people from flying helicopters.
"You don't stop driving because there is a car crash, so you don't stop flying because there is a plane crash," said Ron Rosdeck, a museum tour guide, while providing a tour of the museum.
Rosdeck said the show offers a wide variety of aircraft, including several helicopters.
"We have one here that was used in the Vietnam War," he said.
He said the results of the Bryant crash will likely be a number of recommendations to the National Transportation Safety Board, which oversees investigations into plane and helicopter crashes, to changes to terrain awareness devices being placed on helicopters.
U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat, said on Jan. 30 that he is urging the FAA to act on the NTSB's recommendation that all helicopters be equipped with terrain awareness and warning systems that alert a pilot when an aircraft gets too close to the ground.
The NTSD during a press conference Friday confirmed the helicopter was not equipped with terrain awareness and warning system capability.
Jennifer Homendy, a member if NTSB who participated in the probe, noted that the board had recommended mandating such equipment for commercial helicopters following previous accidents, but the FAA had not implemented that recommendation, the Airport Owners and Pilot Association, based in Frederick, Md. noted in a report.
The absence of a cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, also recommended by the NTSB following previous accidents, was also noted in Homendy's report.
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