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8 September 2023
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Two killed, including fire captain, when Broward Fire Rescue helicopter crashes into apartments, Florida, US
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A Broward Sheriff’s Office Fire Rescue helicopter carrying three crew members hit a Pompano Beach apartment building in Florida, US, on Monday morning, 28 August 2023. Fire-rescue units responded to reports of the Eurocopter EC135 helicopter crashing into a building southwest of Pompano Beach Airpark, with the building and aircraft engulfed about 8h45am..
Broward County Sherrif Gregory Tony said 19-year veteran of the agency, Captain/Flight Paramedic Terryson Jackson, aged 50, died in the crash. Another civilian on the ground was also pronounced dead.
James Roach, EMS medical director for Broward Sherrif’s Office, said that Captain Jackson lives in Tamarac and received an associate degree from Broward College. He was featured in a video for the Sheriff’s Office for Black History Month in 2020 in which his passion for helping others was evident. In the video, Jackson said he came from a family dedicated to medicine and helping people. His mother and father are nurses.
“As a captain and flight paramedic for Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue, my position is to provide the highest level of pre-hospital care while swiftly delivering the patient to the most appropriate medical or trauma facility,” he said in the video. “This career really chose me,” he said. “I get to impact my community each and every day.”
The airpark is located at 1001 NE 10th Street and is known as the home for the Goodyear Blimp and the helicopter crashed in a residential area to the southwest of the airport. Rescue personnel were searching a wide area near the crash site for debris Monday morning.
Brian Piggott, who lives nearby and was out for a walk, saw the helicopter crash into a large building near the airport. He said he watched the helicopter take off to the west of the airpark flying parallel to Atlantic Boulevard, fly south trailing smoke and losing altitude and then dive into a large building.
The four people injured were taken to the Broward Health North hospital where they were listed in fair condition and did not have life-threatening injuries, according to a report from the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Two of the injured are members of the helicopter flight crew that managed to escape the crash: Mikael “Mike” Chaguaceda, 31 years old, who has been with the agency for five years and Daron Roche, the pilot of the aircraft who has been with BSO for four years.
According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, the other two people injured were inside their apartment when the helicopter went down. Family members said the two are brothers who tried to help the victims trapped inside the helicopter. They were identified as Lorenzo Snell and Terran Vandiver. "They were able to climb out of a window and make it to the garbage bin. When they got behind there, the plane exploded,” said Quiana Carter, the sister of the two civilians injured.
“My brother Lorenzo tried to help one of the passengers get out. He said that the helicopter was right there and the propeller was there and he just couldn’t get to him,” she added.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash.
National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report
An engine fire button illuminated inside the Broward Sheriff’s Fire Rescue helicopter before it crashed and the pilot tried to activate its fire suppression system but one engine’s temperature continued to rise, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report released Friday.
The report said the pilot heard a “bang” come from the back of the helicopter on its initial climb about 300 feet to 400 feet above ground level, west of Pompano Beach Airpark shortly before 9 a.m. He saw the turbine outlet temperature of the No. 1 engine was rising.
Putting the engine in idle, the pilot told air traffic control they were in an emergency and tried to head back to the airport. He then noticed that the button that indicated the engine was on fire had lit up, according to the report.
“He pressed the button to activate the fire suppression system; however, the (turbine outlet temperature) continued to rise on the No. 1 engine,” the report said. “The pilot subsequently heard a second ‘bang’ and was unable to control the helicopter. It spun and descended into an apartment building.”
Battalion Chief Terryson Jackson, 50, was trapped and could not escape, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony told reporters. BSO paramedic Mikael “Mike” Chauguaceda, 31, and fire rescue pilot Daron Roche, 37, survived.
The report said the pilot had minor injuries and the other medic suffered serious injuries.
On the way to rescue a patient at the scene of a car crash in North Lauderdale, one of the helicopter’s crewmen said over radio that they began to experience “mechanical issues while in flight,” according to radio communications archived by the website Broadcastify.
A video recorded by one witness showed the helicopter still in flight with smoke trailing behind before it spun out of control, the tail beginning to break off, and crashed into the roof of the apartment building southwest of the Pompano airport.
The report said the helicopter experienced an in-flight fire near the area of the engine exhaust and where the tailboom is attached. The tailboom, the part of the aircraft that connects the tail rotor in the back to the airframe, partly separated, and the helicopter spiraled down in a right spin.
The fire after the helicopter crashed into the roof of the apartment building engulfed the majority of its airframe, the report said, and the tailboom was found about 30 feet away from the main wreckage.
The helicopter’s most recent 100-hour inspection was done on May 23, with an airframe total time of 5,557 hours, according to the report. Its engines had accrued over 5,000 hours, over 2,000 since an overhaul in 2016. The helicopter was operated about 24 hours from its most recent inspection until it crashed. It was maintained based on its manufacturer’s approved inspection program, the report said.
NTSB investigators recovered both engines and their digital control units from the wreckage to download their data and further examine them, the report said.
Jackson’s funeral was held Friday morning in Sunrise. He started his career with Deerfield Beach Fire Rescue in 2004 and joined BSO Fire Rescue when they merged in 2011, the Sheriff’s Office said.
He joined Air Rescue 85 in 2013 as a flight medic and was promoted to captain three years later. He was posthumously promoted to battalion chief.
Lurean Wheaton, originally from South Carolina, was also killed when the helicopter crashed. Wheaton’s niece wrote in a GoFundMe online fundraiser that her aunt was asleep in her apartment when the helicopter crashed.
Sources: South Florida Sun-Sentinel, New York Daily News, NBC Miami
Broward County Sherrif Gregory Tony said 19-year veteran of the agency, Captain/Flight Paramedic Terryson Jackson, aged 50, died in the crash. Another civilian on the ground was also pronounced dead.
James Roach, EMS medical director for Broward Sherrif’s Office, said that Captain Jackson lives in Tamarac and received an associate degree from Broward College. He was featured in a video for the Sheriff’s Office for Black History Month in 2020 in which his passion for helping others was evident. In the video, Jackson said he came from a family dedicated to medicine and helping people. His mother and father are nurses.
“As a captain and flight paramedic for Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue, my position is to provide the highest level of pre-hospital care while swiftly delivering the patient to the most appropriate medical or trauma facility,” he said in the video. “This career really chose me,” he said. “I get to impact my community each and every day.”
The airpark is located at 1001 NE 10th Street and is known as the home for the Goodyear Blimp and the helicopter crashed in a residential area to the southwest of the airport. Rescue personnel were searching a wide area near the crash site for debris Monday morning.
Brian Piggott, who lives nearby and was out for a walk, saw the helicopter crash into a large building near the airport. He said he watched the helicopter take off to the west of the airpark flying parallel to Atlantic Boulevard, fly south trailing smoke and losing altitude and then dive into a large building.
The four people injured were taken to the Broward Health North hospital where they were listed in fair condition and did not have life-threatening injuries, according to a report from the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Two of the injured are members of the helicopter flight crew that managed to escape the crash: Mikael “Mike” Chaguaceda, 31 years old, who has been with the agency for five years and Daron Roche, the pilot of the aircraft who has been with BSO for four years.
According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, the other two people injured were inside their apartment when the helicopter went down. Family members said the two are brothers who tried to help the victims trapped inside the helicopter. They were identified as Lorenzo Snell and Terran Vandiver. "They were able to climb out of a window and make it to the garbage bin. When they got behind there, the plane exploded,” said Quiana Carter, the sister of the two civilians injured.
“My brother Lorenzo tried to help one of the passengers get out. He said that the helicopter was right there and the propeller was there and he just couldn’t get to him,” she added.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash.
National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report
An engine fire button illuminated inside the Broward Sheriff’s Fire Rescue helicopter before it crashed and the pilot tried to activate its fire suppression system but one engine’s temperature continued to rise, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report released Friday.
The report said the pilot heard a “bang” come from the back of the helicopter on its initial climb about 300 feet to 400 feet above ground level, west of Pompano Beach Airpark shortly before 9 a.m. He saw the turbine outlet temperature of the No. 1 engine was rising.
Putting the engine in idle, the pilot told air traffic control they were in an emergency and tried to head back to the airport. He then noticed that the button that indicated the engine was on fire had lit up, according to the report.
“He pressed the button to activate the fire suppression system; however, the (turbine outlet temperature) continued to rise on the No. 1 engine,” the report said. “The pilot subsequently heard a second ‘bang’ and was unable to control the helicopter. It spun and descended into an apartment building.”
Battalion Chief Terryson Jackson, 50, was trapped and could not escape, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony told reporters. BSO paramedic Mikael “Mike” Chauguaceda, 31, and fire rescue pilot Daron Roche, 37, survived.
The report said the pilot had minor injuries and the other medic suffered serious injuries.
On the way to rescue a patient at the scene of a car crash in North Lauderdale, one of the helicopter’s crewmen said over radio that they began to experience “mechanical issues while in flight,” according to radio communications archived by the website Broadcastify.
A video recorded by one witness showed the helicopter still in flight with smoke trailing behind before it spun out of control, the tail beginning to break off, and crashed into the roof of the apartment building southwest of the Pompano airport.
The report said the helicopter experienced an in-flight fire near the area of the engine exhaust and where the tailboom is attached. The tailboom, the part of the aircraft that connects the tail rotor in the back to the airframe, partly separated, and the helicopter spiraled down in a right spin.
The fire after the helicopter crashed into the roof of the apartment building engulfed the majority of its airframe, the report said, and the tailboom was found about 30 feet away from the main wreckage.
The helicopter’s most recent 100-hour inspection was done on May 23, with an airframe total time of 5,557 hours, according to the report. Its engines had accrued over 5,000 hours, over 2,000 since an overhaul in 2016. The helicopter was operated about 24 hours from its most recent inspection until it crashed. It was maintained based on its manufacturer’s approved inspection program, the report said.
NTSB investigators recovered both engines and their digital control units from the wreckage to download their data and further examine them, the report said.
Jackson’s funeral was held Friday morning in Sunrise. He started his career with Deerfield Beach Fire Rescue in 2004 and joined BSO Fire Rescue when they merged in 2011, the Sheriff’s Office said.
He joined Air Rescue 85 in 2013 as a flight medic and was promoted to captain three years later. He was posthumously promoted to battalion chief.
Lurean Wheaton, originally from South Carolina, was also killed when the helicopter crashed. Wheaton’s niece wrote in a GoFundMe online fundraiser that her aunt was asleep in her apartment when the helicopter crashed.
Sources: South Florida Sun-Sentinel, New York Daily News, NBC Miami
