SASless
20th Sep 2006, 00:07
Debris that hit porch was from helicopter
KOMO 4 News
AUBURN — A metal bar that crashed through the roof of an Auburn couple's home was a piece of equipment from a helicopter, officials with the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.
Mary Hornbrook says it's a good thing she forgot one of her tools when she was tending to the plants on her porch Sunday afternoon.
The 82-year-old woman stepped back inside to get the tool when there was "just a big boom and the house shook," Hornbrook said. "I wondered what it was and so I went out to look, and here was this thing sticking in the porch."
The "thing" was a 3-foot steel rod that crashed through her roof and stuck in the floor just a few feet from her plants.
FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said the orange rod was a ground handling wheel bar that fell off of a helicopter that had taken off from the Renton Airport.
The bar is used to help move the helicopter on the ground and should not have been attached to the aircraft when it took off.
The Schweizer 269C helicopter was up for a training flight and had an instructor and student on board, Fergus said. He would not comment on how investigators determined which aircraft was responsible.
It was not known whether the pilot would be cited for the incident, Fergus said, adding that the investigation was ongoing.
The Hornbrooks, though, were stunned by the incident. "I've never seen something so crazy in all my life like this," said Bill Hornbrook, 92. "And I've seen crazy things."
Mary is still thankful she had to go back inside for a gardening tool at just the right time.
"I just thought I was lucky not to be doing what I was intending to do," she said.
In The Rivers mobile home park where she lives on I Street Northeast, residents are used to lots of air traffic from small planes, helicopters and even larger planes that are much higher up in the air.
"They are a bother," Mary said. "First the noise, now falling objects. It really scared the both of us."
KOMO 4 News
AUBURN — A metal bar that crashed through the roof of an Auburn couple's home was a piece of equipment from a helicopter, officials with the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.
Mary Hornbrook says it's a good thing she forgot one of her tools when she was tending to the plants on her porch Sunday afternoon.
The 82-year-old woman stepped back inside to get the tool when there was "just a big boom and the house shook," Hornbrook said. "I wondered what it was and so I went out to look, and here was this thing sticking in the porch."
The "thing" was a 3-foot steel rod that crashed through her roof and stuck in the floor just a few feet from her plants.
FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said the orange rod was a ground handling wheel bar that fell off of a helicopter that had taken off from the Renton Airport.
The bar is used to help move the helicopter on the ground and should not have been attached to the aircraft when it took off.
The Schweizer 269C helicopter was up for a training flight and had an instructor and student on board, Fergus said. He would not comment on how investigators determined which aircraft was responsible.
It was not known whether the pilot would be cited for the incident, Fergus said, adding that the investigation was ongoing.
The Hornbrooks, though, were stunned by the incident. "I've never seen something so crazy in all my life like this," said Bill Hornbrook, 92. "And I've seen crazy things."
Mary is still thankful she had to go back inside for a gardening tool at just the right time.
"I just thought I was lucky not to be doing what I was intending to do," she said.
In The Rivers mobile home park where she lives on I Street Northeast, residents are used to lots of air traffic from small planes, helicopters and even larger planes that are much higher up in the air.
"They are a bother," Mary said. "First the noise, now falling objects. It really scared the both of us."