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The Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office reported that the collision occurred shortly after 2:15 p.m. local time southeast of the airport, with both aircraft coming down in a privately owned farm field near the intersection of Highway 233 and Southeast Stringtown Road. Sheriff Sam Elliott identified the victims as Maddie Aasbo, a 22-year-old flight instructor from Texas, and a student pilot from the United Kingdom aboard the Robinson R22, as well as Tyler Delane Sturdevant, 38, of Newberg, Oregon, who was the sole occupant of the Airbus. Emergency crews from the McMinnville Police Department, Oregon State Police, fire departments and medical services responded to the scene, where no survivors were found.
One of the helicopters was operated by Jerry Trimble Helicopters, a flight training school based at McMinnville Municipal Airport, the company confirmed in a statement. “Jerry Trimble Helicopters is deeply saddened to confirm that one of our aircraft was involved in an aviation incident this afternoon,” the company said, adding that it was fully cooperating with investigators. The sheriff’s office later corrected initial Federal Aviation Administration details on aircraft occupancy, clarifying that the Robinson R22 carried the instructor and student while Sturdevant flew the Airbus alone.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board assumed control of the investigation Thursday evening, with personnel from both agencies examining the wreckage in the field. According to an analysis of National Transportation Safety Board records from 2015 through 2024, Oregon experienced 31 helicopter accidents during that decade, five of them fatal and resulting in six deaths. The NTSB data further shows that flight training operations, the mission of the Robinson R22 involved in Thursday’s crash, carry a lower fatal accident rate of about 7 percent compared with other categories of helicopter flights.
Highway 233 was closed in the area following the collision to allow for emergency response and initial recovery work, though the Oregon Department of Transportation later reopened sections as the scene was secured. McMinnville Municipal Airport Manager John Paskell told reporters that the incident took place off airport property and caused no disruption to flight operations at the facility itself. The British student’s name has been withheld pending notification of next of kin through coordination with United Kingdom consular officials and the FBI.
Historical NTSB reviews of midair collisions indicate that such events represented about 1.4 percent of all U.S. helicopter accidents in the 1990s, with pilot-related factors cited in most determinations. Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott briefed media outlets Thursday night on the preliminary timeline, noting that reports of the crash reached authorities just after 2:10 p.m. The investigation is expected to examine factors including visibility, communication and flight paths in the vicinity of the airport.
