More detail on this person: CHICAGO
SUN-TIMES JAN 30, 2003
Pilot in crash had quit, was working last shift
January 30, 2003
BY DAN ROZEK STAFF REPORTER
A veteran helicopter pilot killed in a crash near
DuPage Airport was working his final shift at an
air ambulance service that he had quit, largely
because he was worried about how well the
business maintained its helicopters, his widow
said Wednesday. Michael Russell, 52, died when
his Augusta 109 helicopter slammed into a
snow-covered cornfield Tuesday night after making
a routine refueling stop at the airport in West
Chicago. "He was concerned about the
maintenance. He had quit because of that,"
Russell's widow, Gloria, said from the couple's
home in Cataula, Ga. "He had a plane ticket to
come home Thursday."
Russell, who had logged about 12,000 hours flying
airplanes and helicopters in a career that began
during the Vietnam War, flew for Air Angels, a
medevac service based at DuPage Airport.
Company officials Wednesday praised Russell as a
"very experienced" pilot, but insisted that the
service properly maintained its helicopters and
had a spotless flying record. "We've never even
had a fender-bender before," said George Roe,
chief executive officer of Air Angels, which
carries critically ill patients to hospitals
around the Chicago area. The service began
operating in 1998 and had two helicopters based at
DuPage Airport, Roe said.
Federal investigators will examine the wreckage,
check maintenance records, scrutinize Russell's
flying record and study weather conditions at the
time of the crash to try to find the cause.
Visibility was about four miles with scattered
clouds and mist when the helicopter crashed at
8:53 p.m. Tuesday, about a mile south of the
airfield. National Transportation Safety Board
investigator Todd Fox said it was too early in the
probe to comment on possible causes. NTSB
investigators Wednesday carted the scorched
wreckage of the helicopter to a hangar at the
airport, where it will be reconstructed to aid the
inquiry.
Russell had started at the service last July,
typically working seven days in a row, then taking
seven days off. When he was in the Chicago area,
he lived with his elderly mother in the north
suburbs, family members said. He also ran a home
construction business in Georgia that he tended on
his days off, his wife said. But Russell, who
survived being shot down several times in the
Vietnam War, had become concerned about the
maintenance work done on the helicopters and had
decided to quit, she said. "There's just so many
things he was concerned about," Gloria Russell
said. She recalled her husband told her his radio
had quit several times during flights, forcing him
to use a cell phone instead. The heater frequently
didn't work either. He also had found "nuts and
bolts" lying around the helicopter. "He told them
he could not fly in those conditions," she said,
adding she tried to persuade him to quit and
return home immediately to Georgia, but he decided
to finish off this week.
Company officials said Michael Russell had given
his notice, but Roe said he thought Russell was
taking a different flying job. The crash occurred
minutes after Russell had shuttled the helicopter
across the airport to refuel. He apparently was
flying back to the Air Angels helipad at the
southeast corner of the airport when he crashed,
company officials said. A source said Air Angels
helicopters often swing around the south end of
the airfield to avoid other aircraft when they
return to the helipad after refueling.
Aviation records indicate the helicopter flown by
Russell on Wednesday was built in the United
States in 1989. It was previously flown as an air
ambulance by Quakenbruck Hospital in Germany
and was sold to a Chicago area leasing company in
1998. According to its Web site, Air Angels
acquired the helicopter and put it into service in
April 2002.
Contributing: Lucio Guerrero
Fatal copter crash is probed, Veteran pilot dies
on last day on job for medevac firm
By Virginia Groark and Kevin Lynch, Chicago
Tribune staff reporters
January 30, 2003
An experienced pilot who was on his last day of
work for an air medevac company died late Tuesday
when his helicopter crashed in a West Chicago
field following routine refueling at DuPage
Airport.
Federal investigators will review maintenance
records of the 1989 Augusta 109C helicopter and
listen to air-traffic control recordings to help
determine the cause of the crash, in which Michael
Russell, 52, of Cataula, Ga., was killed. On
Wednesday, the helicopter debris was hauled to an
airport hangar, where it will be analyzed by
investigators.
A preliminary report may be released next week,
but the entire investigation could take a year,
said Todd Fox, an air safety investigator for the
National Transportation Safety Board.
Russell, whose aviation career spanned more than
30 years, was nearly two hours into his last shift
at Air Angels Inc. when the helicopter crashed
shortly before 9 p.m. in a field off Roosevelt
Road and Fabyan Parkway.
The helicopter had completed a mission flown by
another pilot, and Russell had taken it to a
refueling station about a mile northwest of the
West Chicago company's Kress Road office, said
Michael Dermont, the firm's vice president of
operations.
It's not known why Russell, who was alone in the
helicopter, was flying south of the company's
office, which is on airport property, but Fox said
it would not be unusual.
"If there's other traffic in the area, it's not
uncommon for helicopters to follow certain
patterns that aren't necessarily in a straight
line," he said.
At 8:53 p.m., air-traffic controllers reported
seeing a flash, and when firefighters arrived at
the scene, the wreckage was engulfed in flames,
said Bob Hodge, West Chicago Fire Protection
District deputy chief. Debris from the crash was
spread along a 162-foot swath.
Russell was pronounced dead at the scene. An
autopsy conducted Wednesday concluded he died
of multiple injuries, said a DuPage County
coroner's spokeswoman.
Federal investigators would not say whether
weather played a role in the crash. It had snowed
earlier in the day, but there were no reports of
precipitation at the time of the accident.
Visibility was at 4 miles, with a mist, and winds
were about 9 miles per hour, Fox said.
At Air Angels, which flies the critically ill to
hospitals throughout northern Illinois and
Indiana, flight operations were suspended
Wednesday, Dermont said. Crisis-intervention
teams met with staff while other medevac
companies substituted for them, he said.
A DuPage Airport spokesman said the company
has not been involved in any safety incidents at
the airport since it began operating there three
years ago.
Russell, who grew up in Waukegan, began his
flying career in the military. After graduating
from high school, he served in Vietnam with the
Army. His duties included flying a "lead"
helicopter that relayed information on the enemy's
location to ground forces, said his wife, Gloria,
from her home in Cataula. The couple have two
adult sons.
The duty was so dangerous that he was shot down
several times and received a Purple Heart, she
said. Russell remained in the military for several
years and had been a member of the active
reserves, an Army spokeswoman said.
His career, which included serving as a flight
instructor, also took him to the Middle East,
where he worked for Bell Helicopter and other
companies. During that time, he suffered a broken
back in a crash that occurred when an airplane
that had been cleared for takeoff clipped his
helicopter's rotor blade as he was trying to land,
his wife said.
"He was a very experienced pilot," she said. "In
fact, he told me that if anyone ever called me and
told me that he had died in a helicopter crash, to
make sure it was investigated fully, because there
was no way he would ever die in a helicopter crash
unless it was mechanical failure and something he
couldn't control."
He took a job with Air Angels in July because he
wanted to help care for his 87-year-old mother who
lives in Waukegan. Air Angels pilots work 12-hour
shifts for seven days then have seven days off,
Dermont said. Russell lived with his mother while
he was working and returned to Georgia on his
weeks off, his wife said.
He had decided to leave Air Angels because he had
concerns about the firm, his wife said.
Dermont said that he was not aware of concerns of
Russell's and that Russell was leaving to take a
job with another firm.
A pilot with concerns about aircraft can file a
formal complaint, which would be included in the
company files, Dermont said. He was unaware of
Russell having filed such a complaint, but he said
all records were now in the hands of the NTSB.
"If there was an issue, that will come out," he
said.
Copyright (c) 2003, Chicago Tribune
From: Art Ashton
NTSB Identification: CHI03FA060.
The docket is stored in the Docket Management
System (DMS). Please contact Records
Management Division Accident occurred Tuesday,
January 28, 2003 in West Chicago, IL Probable
Cause Approval Date: 12/3/2004, Aircraft: Agusta
A109C, registration: N109MX, Injuries: 1 Fatal.
The helicopter was destroyed when it impacted
terrain about 2.0 nautical miles (nm) south of the
departure airport during a positioning flight.
Night marginal visual flight rules (MVFR)
conditions prevailed with reduced visibilities and
low clouds. After refueling the helicopter, the
pilot requested to depart to the south in order to
"status check a couple pieces of equipment" and
then return to the heliplex located on the
southeast perimeter of the airport. Aircraft radar
track data showed the helicopter traveling south
about 1.7 nm before turning to the
south-southwest. While traveling to the south, the
helicopter climbed to about 500 feet above ground
level (agl) while accelerating from 95 knots to
about 125 knots airspeed. The helicopter then
entered an 18 second period where the climb rate
increased from 500 feet/min to 2,000 feet/min and
the helicopter reached a maximum altitude of about
1,000 feet agl. The helicopter decelerated from
125 to 100 knots airspeed during this climb. Based
on the last two radar returns, the helicopter
descended about 200 feet which resulted in a 1,350
feet/min descent rate. Further examination of the
data showed the helicopter decelerating from 85 to
35 knots airspeed during the descent. The last
radar return was at 800 feet agl and 425 feet east
of the initial ground impact. The pilot was
appropriately certificated to fly the helicopter
and was employed as a pilot for an on-demand air
ambulance service. The pilot was working his final
shift as an employee with the company when the
accident occurred. All primary airframe structural
components, flight control systems, rotor systems,
transmissions, and powerplant components were
recovered at the accident site. Inspection of the
recovered components did not exhibit any evidence
of pre-impact malfunction. A review of the daily
usage logs for the helicopter failed to reveal any
unresolved maintenance discrepancies. The pilot
who flew the helicopter prior to the accident
flight did not report any malfunctions with the
helicopter. A fuel sample was obtained from the
source used to service the helicopter prior to the
accident flight. The fuel sample was tested and
met or exceeded the specifications for Aviation
Turbine Fuel (Jet-A).
The National Transportation Safety Board
determines the probable cause(s) of this accident
as follows: The pilot's failure to maintain
control of the helicopter while maneuvering,
resulting in the excessive descent rate and impact
with terrain. Factors to the accident included the
dark night, low ceiling and reduced visibility at
the time of the accident.
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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