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Posted Oct 15th, 2,ooo
A helicopter plunged 50 feet and crashed onto busy
Pines Boulevard in Pembroke Pines on Saturday, killing
the two people aboard and terrifying dozens of
motorists.
The pilot, 46-year-old Barbara McKinley of Pembroke
Pines, died en route to a hospital, and a passenger in
the helicopter, 50-year-old Brian Auerbach, also of
Pembroke Pines, died on impact.
McKinley was an experienced pilot who had flown
corporate planes for Burdines, said her fiancé, Ken
Michaelis. He said she took Auerbach, a neighbor, up
for his first helicopter flight Saturday.
Michaelis said she called right before taking off and
told him to stay home because she was going to fly
over his home in Southwest Ranches.
Michaelis went outside with his two daughters a little
later and waved to McKinley as she circled.
"She buzzed about four or five times, waving at us,
and then headed to Miami,'' Michaelis said. "We were
going to get together later in the day.''
Witnesses said the chopper, a Robinson R22 Beta,
swayed back and forth minutes before dropping onto
Pines Boulevard about noon, narrowly missing
motorists.
"I could tell it was in trouble by the way it
sounded. It didn't seem like he had any power -- he
was definitely having some kind of mechanical
problems,'' said David Mayer, who was jogging along
Pines Boulevard when the crash occurred.
"I was sitting at the intersection on the phone and
heard a helicopter really low,'' said Kristi Krueger,
an anchor with WPLG-ABC 10 who lives in Pines. "I saw
it listing from side to side and said to my mom, `Oh,
my God, I'm going to get hit! ' then it swerved down
south on Pines Boulevard and crashed.''
The red and white two-seater helicopter took off from
Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at about 11:30 p.m.,
said Corky Smith, senior investigator with the
National Transportation Safety Board, who was at the
scene Saturday. The helicopter is owned by Volar
Helicopters at the airport.
Smith said the pilot was a certified instructor and it
was a "routine flight.''
FLYING LOW
Witnesses told Smith the chopper approached Pines
Boulevard, flying south at a low altitude. The chopper
was swaying back and forth and, at the intersection of
Pines Boulevard and Northwest 155th Avenue, yawed to
the left and headed east, Smith said. Seconds later,
the helicopter dropped from the sky and crashed.
"I saw the helicopter coming and it looked like it
was in trouble. It was swerving all over the place and
it seemed like the tail flipped,'' said Andy Gonzalez,
owner of an Exxon gas station at the intersection.
"He was really flying low and it looked like she was
trying to veer to the left and land in the lake but
she couldn't make it. It's amazing no one was killed
and that she missed the traffic lights.''
The chopper hit the road with a resounding boom,
sending pieces of the tail across several lanes. Some
were found up to 50 feet away.
The windshield shattered and the blades of the rotor
were bent and twisted underneath the mangled frame.
Fuel began leaking across the highway.
According to the R22 Pilot and Owners Association, the
Robinson R22 is one of the most popular training
helicopters in the world. In 1995, the NTSB
recommended that R22s be grounded because of 26 fatal
accidents in which the main rotor hit the airframe
during flight. Those were the total fatal accidents
involving the R22 since its inception in 1979. (NOTE: This statement is misleading as it addresses only rotor loss and rotor incursion accidents and even then the figure is wrong. The correct figure at last count is 32). (LuZ)
As a result of the NTSB recommendations, the Federal
Aviation Administration issued revised airworthiness
directives for the R22. Those directives are the
operating procedures required by the FAA. Among other
things, the FAA required R22 pilots to avoid high and
low air speeds and maintain maximum power on RPM.
`STEEP DESCENT'
"It had to have been a steep descent because it went
under the traffic lines,'' said Armando Orraca, a
commercial pilot who lives in the Towngate subdivision
on the north side of Pines Boulevard. "It's amazing
it didn't burst into flames, really amazing.''
Cars headed east minutes after the wreck swerved off
the road to avoid hitting the debris. Passersby jumped
from their vehicles and ran to try to help the two
people strapped inside.
Auerbach was dead. The pilot, McKinley, was moving and
breathing, witnesses said. They unstrapped her, pulled
her out and Mayer began administering CPR until medics
arrived. She was rushed to Memorial Hospital West but
was pronounced dead on arrival.
"It flew over my head at about 50 feet and then
crashed,'' said Mayer, a lieutenant colonel with the
Southern Command in Miami. "I ran over there and both
passengers were still strapped inside.''
The westbound lanes of Pines Boulevard from Interstate
75 to Northwest 155th Avenue were closed for more than
four hours while NTSB investigators inspected the
wreckage and questioned witnesses. At about 5 p.m.,
the aircraft was hauled away and the road opened.
"All of us who work around here call this
intersection the `intersection of death,' '' Gonzalez
said. "There's always wrecks at this corner and
someone dying. We've never had a helicopter crash
before, though.''
I read this news on sunday miami herald..
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[This message has been edited by Lu Zuckerman (edited 20 October 2000).]