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Deadly 206 Crash


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Geez,

 

...look at what you BC Boys did to her.......man!

 

Very sorry to hear about the fatality!

 

We can thank ACRO for Another Crappy Repair/Overhaul for my incident.

 

Allegedly, a spring broke in the governor that hadn't been changed as per a required AD.

 

I better be careful, someone will be sending me off to 407 Driver's therapist :lol:

 

RH

 

Anyway, back to the real topic of the thread... Very sorry to hear of the loss of this young lady, our deepest sympathy to her family.

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'Romantic surprise' ends in helicopter tragedy

 

The Chilliwack Progress

http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pag...ticleID=1866140

 

A surprise date turned to tragedy Sunday after the woman who planned a helicopter ride to a glacier with her boyfriend died in a crash in an Abbotsford field.

 

Kristin Panchuk, a friend of the 22-year-old Chilliwack woman, said the woman had been planning the surprise for her boyfriend, Dustin, for about a week.

 

"She was just spontaneous like that," Ms. Panchuk said of her friend, whom she identified as Christina.

 

On Sunday morning, Christina was in the helicopter with the pilot when he said it wasn't safe to take off from the field on 58th Avenue, near Ross Road.

 

Instead, the pilot was apparently going to lift the Bell Jet Ranger helicopter off the ground, move back, and then land and let Dustin on board.

 

When the pilot took off, the chopper "went sideways" and Dustin watched in horror as the helicopter landed on its side.

 

"It was the most wonderful thing gone wrong," Ms. Panchuk said.

 

Greg McKinley, who leases his property out to four individuals for take off and landings, was looking out his living room window Sunday morning when he saw the helicopter lift off the ground four to six feet.

 

Suddenly, the chopper listed to the west and the prop dug into the ground and broke, he said.

 

"It just kinda leaned over to its side," he said. "Debris flew 20 or 30 feet in the air."

 

Ms. Panchuk said the pilot said he was going for help, and Dustin shut off the helicopter and pulled his girlfriend of more than a year from the aircraft.

 

Mr. McKinley went to help the injured woman and began CPR, despite not being able to find a pulse.

 

When emergency crews arrived, two men were rendering first aid to the victim, but police could not find the pilot.

 

Abbotsford Police Const. Shinder Kirk said it is unclear why the pilot went missing.

 

"It could have had a very traumatic impact on the individual and that could have been (why the pilot left)," said Const. Kirk.

 

Officers are still trying to confirm the identity of the man who was behind the controls when the Bell Jet Ranger helicopter crashed in the northwest Abbotsford field around 10 a.m. on Sunday morning.

 

The crash is currently being deemed suspicious by police, "given that the identity of the pilot has not been confirmed and may have left prior to the arrival of emergency crews," Const. Kirk said.

 

Ms. Panchuk, who lit candles and laid flowers near the crash site yesterday, called on the pilot to turn himself in, saying his disappearance is "making it worse."

 

Because the planned picnic on a glacier had been planned by Christina, Dustin doesn't know where she found the pilot, Ms. Panchuk said.

 

The helicopter was registered to Pinnacle Reef Explorations, a Chilliwack-based business, officials said. The company could not be contacted by press deadline.

 

The 22-year-old woman who died was a spontaneous person "who could light up the room with her smile," said Ms. Panchuk.

 

"She was such a giving friend . . .our children just adored her."

 

"It was sad that we had to lose her."

 

Transportation safety board investigators were again at the scene yesterday, documenting the wreckage with photographs.

 

 

 

post-1996-1152289761_thumb.jpg

Investigators survey the site of a fatal helicopter crash that claimed the life of a 22-year-old Chilliwack woman.

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