Two helicopters collided midair around 2 p.m. Thursday a few miles east of the airport in McMinnville, Oregon, and crashed into a farm field, killing all three people aboard, officials said. The National Transportation Safety Board said a team was on its way to examine the wreckage.
Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott identified the victims as Maddie Aasbo, 22, a flight instructor from Texas; Tyler Sturdevant, 38, a pilot from Oregon; and a 31-year-old student pilot from the United Kingdom, whose name has not been released. According to the NTSB, the smaller Robinson R22 was on an instructional flight, and the Airbus AS350B3 was on a maintenance flight.
Aasbo graduated from the wildlife management program at Southwest Texas College in Uvalde and was on its rodeo team from 2021 to 2023, according to a post on the group's Facebook page. The post said she had "found ultimate freedom in the air" as a helicopter pilot and instructor. The owners of the two helicopters, Jerry Trimble Helicopters and Precision, said they are cooperating with authorities on the investigation.