On Friday, September 8, country music star Troy
Gentry of Montgomery Gentry passed away at a hospital following a helicopter
crash at the Flying W Airport in Medford, New Jersey. The pilot of the
Schweizer 269, 30-year-old James Evan Robinson, was also killed in the crash,
after he tried to perform an emergency landing.
On Wednesday, the NTSB
released a preliminary report, citing an engine control problem as
the cause of the crash.
Montgomery
Gentry was scheduled to perform at the airport and resort that evening, and so
the 50-year-old Gentry accepted the sightseeing flight as an “impromptu, spur
of the moment” offer from Robinson, according to Peoplemagazine.
However, shortly after taking off, Robinson reported problems with the engine
and so he considered his emergency landing options by radio with two flight
instructors on the ground, according to the report.
“Not
long after takeoff, the pilot announced over the airport frequency – which was
being monitored by a number of people – that he was having difficulty
controlling engine RPM,” Brian Rayner, a senior air safety investigator with
the NTSB, told People. “A couple of different responses to that
challenge were discussed, and he was performing an autorotational descent to
runway one.”
Robinson
cut the engine’s power at 950 feet, after hovering “for several minutes” as he
and Gentry waited for emergency services to arrive. But the blades slowed too
quickly and the helicopter crashed approximately 220 feet from the runway.
Robinson had flown the Schweizer 269 for more than an hour earlier that day,
and the aircraft had reportedly
passed a 100-hour inspection on August 17.
Investigations
by the NTSB and FAA are ongoing.
On
Saturday, Flying W officials issued a statement on Facebook.
“Yesterday the day started with such excitement as the Montgomery Gentry bus
rolled through our gates,” it read. “The nicest people got off the bus and
joined us on the ramp for what we hoped would be the best concert we have ever
had.”
“Sadly
this was not to be. Instead the day turned to tragedy as a helicopter accident
took the lives of the pilot and Mr. Gentry. No words can describe the sadness
that the Flying W employees feel for their families.”
A
service was held for Gentry at the Grand Ole Opry on Thursday. HelicopterFlight Services, which operated the helicopter involved in the crash, has paid
tribute to Robinson in several social media posts.
(Evangle Luo of TTFLY shared with you)
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