The pilot walked away from what is now being described as a forced landing of the helicopter that went down August 25 while on a water-dropping mission on the Donnell Fire on the Stanislaus National Forest in California. After walking some distance from the accident site and being treated on-scene by paramedics the pilot was admitted to a hospital for observation overnight. He is expected to make a full recovery.
Ian Gregor, communications manager with the Federal Aviation Administration, said on Monday that the helicopter “crashed and rolled” at the accident site.
According to an August 27 article in the Union Democrat, Kevin Shields, a representative of Roberts Aircraft, said their Bell 212 had a forced landing due to “some unknown event that was occurring with the aircraft.”
File photo of a Bell 212 operated by Kachina Aviation, taken by Akradecki March 16, 2007.
5 Comments
Bill, is this a photo of the helicopter that crashed? Just wondering, but if not please don’t post photos of like a/c just for the reference. Thanks in advance.
Caption identifies it as a file photo…
Nope. Wrong company too
I know the pilot – this was a CRASH, not a forced landing due to some small mech problem. Total LOC. Luckiest pilot I’ve ever known.
Flip the last two letters on the Number and it resembles the 212 Alaska Helicopter used to fly and one which arrived at our crash site but couldn’t evac us we had to wait for Roark Schwanenberg in the Columbia Boeing 264 come rescue us. RIP Roark you were a fabulous pilot and a super nice man and a good friend.
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