I don't think it was in a helicopter crash, since I know of only
two Chicago officers who died in crashes:
Chicago closed their two-helicopter operation in 1979.
Copter Flaw Seen in Crash
August 12, 1971
Copter Flaw Seen in Crash
Malfunction of basic flight controls - possibly in the tail section - was
identified yesterday by federal investigators as the probable cause
of the helicopter crash in Bellwood Tuesday afternoon which took the
lives of WGN's Flying Officer Irwin [Irv] Hayden, 52, and his pilot,
David Demarest, 29.
"Weather was not a factor, although there had been thunderstorms,
hall and lightning north of Bellwood where the accident occurred,"
said a National Transport Safety Board spokesman.
"The copter was in the clear away from the storm when the trouble
started in the air. Scores of people on the ground saw what happened.
Rudder Difficulty Seen
"We are zeroing in on the copter control system and the power
plant. We believe there was rudder difficulty. Cursory examination of the
wreckage, however, indicates that both the main lift rotors and the tail
yaw rotor were on the machine when it struck the power pole and burned.
"The difficulty seems to have been within the linkages and possibly
the boost system through which the pilot controls the copter. It appeared
to have occurred rather suddenly and the pilot, so far as we have been
able to determine, did not make any radio report to the ground about
his trouble."
Gene Filip, assistant news director of WGN, had been calling the copter
from 4:20 to 4:25 p.m. to alert the two copter observers that their
scheduled 4:35 p.m. broadcast was imminent. Hayden did not reply.
Crashed at 4:20 p.m.
Witnesses at the crash scene agreed that the helicopter struck the ground
at 4:20 and was burning from its impact with a pole carrying high-powered
electric lines.
"It's not surprising that the pilot did not make a radio report of
the trouble," said Edwin L. Packer Jr., chief of flight operations for
Chicago Helicopter Airways, which leases two helicopters to WGN
each weekday for traffic observation.
"A comparison would be that the driver of a car would not make a
radio report if his vehicle skidded a mile down an expressway. We have
an open radio channel to all the traffic copters but our tape has nothing
on it.
Pilot in Viet Nam
"We have pretty good indications of what happened, but the
investigation is in the hands of the NTSB and we cannot discuss it at
this time."
Pilot Demarest, Packer said, "had been a copter pilot in Viet Nam,
and was a very fine airman." Packer said Demarest joined the Chicago
Helicopter Airways staff in April, and was quite experienced in flying
the Bell 47-G-2 single piston-engine copter.
Witnesses at the scene said the copter came over the Bellwood area
at 200 feet or less "much below normal flight altitudes."
They described it as "wavering uncertainly in flight," and as
"appearing to have lost its power."
Spins Around Rotor
Several witnesses said that the helicopter began spinning "around its
main rotor" just before it struck the 70-foot Commonwealth Edison pole,
which carries both industrial and residential electrical lines with more
than 50,000 total volts.
Hayden was making his second flight on his first day back at work
after a month's holiday in Europe with his family. Hayden resided at
1536 W. Thome Av. and Demarest was living with two other pilots at 2700
N. Hampton Ct.
The accident was the second in WGN's traffic copter history. The first
occurred in May, 1960, when Patrolman Leonard Baldy and his pilot,
H. G. Ferry, were killed when another leased copter threw a main rotor
blade and plunged into a railroad embankment at Hubbard Street and
Milwaukee Avenue.
CHICAGO (AP) - The pilot of a traffic helicopter said he had to swerve when
a model airplane controlled from the ground came within 5 feet of crashing
into his airborne chopper.
Mike Davis, a helicopter pilot for 10 years, said he and Jim Cavanaugh of the
Chicago police department were flying on traffic reporting duty for a radio
station when the incident occurred at 600 feet.
They filed a reckless conduct complaint against the alleged operators of the
model plane, Richard Grossman, 43, an accountant and model plane buff, and
Greg Gruninger, 27, who flew chartered Lear jets for 3 1/2 years before
recently becoming a pilot for Mississippi Valley Airways.
Gruninger, who is learning to fly remote-control models, and Grossman denied
that the plane - a Sig Kadet trainer with a 57-inch wingspan and powered by
a two-cycle gasoline engine - was in the air at the time of the alleged
buzzing a week ago.
Grossman and Gruninger have a court date June 21 in suburban Palatine to face
the misdemeanor charge.