Rotor repair work happened before fatal helicopter crash: NTSB
Wreckage from a helicopter crash is visible around the business on 900 North in North Salt Lake on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014. Pieces of the helicopter reportadely fell before the aircraft crashed.
Bruce Orr was one of two men killed in a helicopter crash in North Salt Lake. Orr was on a routine maintenance test flight, a colleague said Wednesday.
First responders examine the remains of a crashed helicopter on the roof of a warehouse in North Salt Lake on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014 as a law enforcement helicopter circles the scene. Two people were in the helicopter and died in the crash. No one was in the building at the time.
NORTH SALT LAKE — The helicopter that crashed and killed two people had maintenance work done on it just before the fatal flight, according to new information released by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The crash occurred at about 2 p.m. Dec. 2. The Robinson R44 II helicopter crashed into the roof of a two-story building at 450 W. 900 North in North Salt Lake. Two men on the helicopter, Claus Hauer, 65, of Sandy, and Bruce Orr, 63, of Tooele, died at the scene.
According to the NTSB’s preliminary report issued this week, the helicopter was registered to Native Range Capture Services Inc., of Elko, Nevada, and was operated by Native Range Inc., of Ventura, California.
The flight was a post-maintenance flight and the helicopter had departed from Skypark Airport in Bountiful minutes before the crash.
Several witnesses told investigators they “heard popping sounds, then saw the main rotor and empennage (tail assembly) separate from the helicopter as the helicopter flew overhead,” the report said.
“Several of the witnesses then saw the helicopter tumble in flight and impact the top of a building,” investigators wrote in the report. “The main rotor blade and empennage impacted the ground a few hundred feet from the impacted building.”
The helicopter’s owner told investigators that mechanics had done maintenance to the main rotor assembly, the NTSB said. The flight was “to check the ‘track and balance’ of the main rotor blades,” according to the document.
The impact occurred 2,000 feet southwest of a runway at Skypark and caused a fire to burn the helicopter. Debris recovered from the crash has been taken to a secure location in order to continue the investigation, according to the document.
Contact reporter Loretta Park at 801-625-4252 or lpark@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @LorettaParkSE. Like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SELorettaPark.