CBS4 News Takes Center Stage
Jun 21, 2009 8:56 pm US/Eastern
Two Flight Problems End With Safe Landings
DELRAY BEACH (CBS4) ―
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A Robinson helicopter was forced to land in Palm Beach after the pilot and his student reported mechanical problems.
CBS
A South Florida pilot has quite a story to tell this Father's Day after he was forced to make an emergency landing Sunday morning.
Shortly before noon, the pilot of a small single engine plane successfully landed on the grassy area next to the southbound lanes of the Sawgrass Expressway near West Oakland Park Boulevard in Sunrise. Investigators have not said what malfunctioned in the plane to force the pilot to make the emergency landing. The pilot was able to walk away without a scratch and no injuries on the ground were reported.
This was the second air emergency of the morning.
Shortly after 1:30 a.m. a Palm Beach County helicopter flight instructor was forced to make a 'hard landing' west of Delray Beach.
The PBC Helicopter School instructor Matthew Kelch, 28, of West Palm Beach and his student Stephen Linares, 19, were flying at about 35 hundred feet in a Robinson 22 helicopter around 1:30 a.m. when the student noticed something wrong with the craft. The instructor took over the controls but as it neared the ground, the helicopter clipped several palm trees and landed on its side in the area of Jog Road and North Oriole Blvd.
Linares was not injured, but Kelch was taken to a local hospital. No word on the extent of his injuries.
While it's unclear what caused the crash early Sunday, the airworthiness of some Robinson helicopters was recently questioned by CBS4 I-Team Investigator Stephen Stock. The CBS4 I-Team found at least ten instances of rotor blade delamination on Robinson helicopters.
Click here to read the article.
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