Pilot dies in post race copter crash
A pilot was killed Sunday night when two helicopters approaching a landing pad at Homestead-Miami Speedway collided less than 100 feet in the air, causing one to crash into a motor home and burst into flames shortly after the conclusion to NASCAR's big season-ending race.
An unidentified pilot was killed when his helicopter collided with another copter above the landing pad at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
One copter came down atop a just-vacated motor home in a temporary trailer park used by NASCAR fans and officials beyond the second turn at the southwest corner of the racetrack.
The pilot of the copter was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital as paramedics tried desperately to revive him.
He died shortly after arrival at the Ryder Trauma Center, said Miami-Dade Police Department spokeswoman Nelda Fonticiella. The victim's name was withheld until his family could be notified.
''The thing went in upside down and sideways,'' said race fan Greg Smith of Arcadia, Fla., who helped extinguish the flaming wreckage, which came down less than 30 feet from a gasoline tanker truck. ``The front of the canopy was busted and gone and everything was hanging upside down.''
The helicopter's rotors protruded from the smashed roof of the motor home, whose owner had walked out just seconds earlier, said Sonia Ridley, a nurse and NASCAR club chapter president from Atlanta.
''That's my motor home. I was just getting something from my car. I was just in there,'' the man said, according to Ridley.
The second helicopter managed to land at the helipad, its pilot unhurt, despite having lost the left landing skid.
There were no reports of injuries on the ground.
The collision occurred at about 8:45 p.m., about an hour after the checkered flag dropped to signal the end of the Nextel Cup Ford 400, the final race of the NASCAR racing season. Thousands of race fans were milling about the grounds at the time.
Chris Woodward, a truck driver from Missouri, was standing near a police officer and snapping photographs of the racing team trucks as they left the left the track, when the two helicopters, approaching the helipad from the west, passed overhead.
''The white helicopter was on approach, in front, at a lower altitude,'' Woodward said. ``The other helicopter, the green one, which was flying aft at a higher altitude and at a higher velocity, flew in overhead.
'I turned toward the officer and said, `These two are going to crash if they're not careful' -- and they collided in midair,'' Woodward said.
The collision occurred ''at roughly about the height of the stadium lights,'' he said.
The landing skid of the overtaking helicopter appeared to strike the rotors of helicopter in front, witnesses said.
''One stayed airborne and headed down to the far side of the helipad,'' said Marvin Eastman, who was watching the steady arrivals of helicopters from the motor home he drove from Ithaca, N.Y. for the race. ``He managed to land OK. The other one got hit, did a complete pivot and went straight to the ground. As soon as it [crashed], it burst into flames.''
Miami International Airport spokesman Greg Chin identified the owner of the helicopter that landed with the broken skid as Biscayne Helicopters, based at Tamiami-Kendall Airport in southwest Miami-Dade.
The Federal Aviation Administration identified that helicopter as an Aerospatiale model AS350B, registration number N264BH.
The agency identified the other aircraft -- the one that crashed -- as a Eurocopter EC130B4, registration number N130HS, owned by Wells Fargo Bank of Salt Lake City. The FAA provided no further information Sunday night.
A woman who answered the phone at Biscayne Helicopters late Sunday said, ''No comment,'' and then hung up.
Speedway officials released a terse five-sentence statement after the crash that said officials of both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were on site investigating the incident.
The helicopters were part of a long line of choppers waiting their turns to land and pick up race car drivers, sponsors and team owners and ferry them to local airports, a common practice after NASCAR races.
Witnesses said veteran NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip, who was waiting near the landing pad, told them one of the incoming helicopters was picking him up.
Waltrip left shortly after the crash and could not be reached for comment
Reed Sorenson, who finished 28th in the 400, was waiting to board one of the helicopters.
"I was the next one in line to go," Sorenson said. "I saw them hit. One went straight down and the other tried to land in the grass nearby. It took off part of his landing gear.
"I took off running because I thought parts were going everywhere. After seeing that, I don't think I'll ever fly a helicopter again."
Last year, NASCAR was rocked by a fatal plane crash that killed 10 people involved with Rick Hendricks' racing team -- owner of Jeff Gordon's car, among others -- as they were traveling to a race in Virginia. Top drivers Davey Allison also died in a race-track helicopter crash while former Cup champion Alan Kulwicki died in a plane crash en route to a race in Tennessee.
And a helicopter coming to pick up team owner Joe Gibbs, now coach of the Washington Redskins, from a helipad outside the Daytona International Raceway three years ago crashed on approach, killing two people.
