Three people died Thursday afternoon when two helicopters collided in midair near McMinnville Municipal Airport in Oregon, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office.
The FAA told TMZ that an Airbus H125 and a Robinson R22 were flying in the vicinity of the airport when the aircraft struck each other. One helicopter carried a single pilot, while the other had two people aboard, the agency said. All three occupants were killed, the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office confirmed.
The sheriff's office named 22-year-old flight instructor Maddie Aasbo as one of the two people on board the helicopter carrying two occupants. The second person, described as a British student pilot, has not been publicly identified. The pilot of the other helicopter was identified as 38-year-old Tyler Sturdevant.
Roads surrounding the crash site near McMinnville were closed as investigators began examining the cause of the collision. The FAA is leading the inquiry, and no determination of cause has been announced.
McMinnville Municipal Airport sits in Yamhill County, roughly an hour southwest of Portland, and serves as a regional hub for general aviation and flight training. The collision adds to a recent string of fatal aviation incidents that have drawn attention to midair safety and training operations at smaller airfields.
The deaths of Aasbo and the unidentified student pilot underscore the risks inherent in flight instruction, where instructors and trainees share close quarters in light aircraft. Sturdevant's role and the circumstances that placed both helicopters in the same airspace remain under investigation.
Authorities have not released further details about the sequence of events leading to the collision. The Yamhill County Sheriff's Office and the FAA are expected to provide updates as the investigation progresses.