Oregon midair helicopter collision kills three, including 22-year-old instructor, British student pilot

An experienced pilot was on a test run in a helicopter and a 22-year-old flight instructor with a student pilot from the United Kingdom were in another when the two aircraft collided midair in Oregon and crashed into a farm field, killing all three.

Details about the three victims were still emerging Friday, as the National Transportation Safety Board said a team was on its way to examine the wreckage from the previous day's crash. Law enforcement photos showed a red helicopter lying crumpled in a farm field, while a green helicopter came to rest upside down.

The crash happened around 2 p.m. Thursday on a cloudy day, a few miles east of the airport in McMinnville. The town, about an hour's drive southwest of Portland, lies in the broad, flat Willamette Valley near the foothills of the Coast Range, in the heart of Oregon's wine country.


Leo Rodriguez was working on a nearby barn roof at his family's winery when the helicopters collided.

"There was an explosion mid-air," he told KPTV. "I bent over to do something and then, boom, and I look up and the planes were already going down."

Rodriguez said the tail end of the larger helicopter was struck, then it turned and began going toward the ground. He said the other helicopter fell straight down.

"It just happened so fast," he said.

Few details were immediately available about the collision. The smaller Robinson R22 helicopter was on an instructional flight, according to the NTSB. The Airbus AS350B3 helicopter was on a maintenance flight, which are typically done after maintenance or repair.

The victims included 38-year-old Tyler Sturdevant, a pilot from Oregon, 22-year-old Maddie Aasbo, a flight instructor from Texas, and 31-year-old Christopher Joughin, a student pilot from the United Kingdom, Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott said during a news conference.

Aasbo graduated from the wildlife management program of Southwest Texas College, in Uvalde, and was a member of its rodeo team from 2021 to 2023, according to a post on the group's Facebook.

The post described her as a brave, bold and independent woman who also worked for large hunting ranches in Texas and spent time in New Mexico and Alaska. In Oregon, the group said, she "had found ultimate freedom in the air as a helicopter pilot and instructor."

"Her sudden passing has left us equally stunned and heartbroken," it said. "It is beyond difficult to find the words worthy of a young woman of her caliber and impact-fulness."

The owners of the two helicopters - Jerry Trimble Helicopters and Precision - both said they are cooperating with authorities on the investigation while trying to help the grieving families of the victims.

Precision, a helicopter charter and maintenance company that also helps fly drone missions for the military, said in a post on Instagram that Sturdevant was their "beloved" senior pilot.

"Tyler has touched countless lives, not only through his love of flying, but through the many pilots he mentored, encouraged, and helped along the way," Precision posted. "His legacy lives on in every pilot he helped bring up and every life he made a difference in."

His LinkedIn page says he worked as a pilot examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration for the past four years while continuing to work at Precision for more than 20 years.

In 2021, Sturdevant's wife, Monica Sturdevant, nominated him as a community hero on an Oregon Facebook group. She described him as a great husband and father who missed celebrating Father's Day with them that year because he was helping fight forest fires.

She also said he signed up to be an Angel Flight pilot in his free time to help transport people to important medical appointments.

"He's not doing it for recognition, or because he expects anything in return, but simply because of his compassion for people, and I couldn't be more proud of him," Sturdevant said.

The U.K.'s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said in a statement that it was in touch with local authorities and providing support to Joughin's family.

The Jerry Trimble school offers everything from demo flights for first-time flyers to advanced training.