Helicopter crash raises public safety concerns

Mere seconds and a few feet prevented a tragedy from becoming a disaster Sunday when a helicopter piloted by a Berlin Center man crashed onto U.S. Route 224. The pilot, Howard Wiggs, 65, of W. Akron-Canfield Road died at the scene.
But had Wiggs' helicopter come down seconds earlier, the death toll could have been much higher. That's because the last unit of Berlin Center's Memorial Day parade had just passed the spot where the aircraft came to rest after it clipped a wire about 50 feet off the ground. The parade, which featured hundreds of children, started at Western Reserve Middle School and went west along Route 224 about a half mile to West Berlin Cemetery.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, which means details won't be available until a final report is issued. We urge the investigators to not only address the usual issues, such as the cause, but delve into the public safety concerns the crash has raised.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration declined to talk about this incident because of the ongoing NTSB probe, but in response to a question about rules and regulations governing such flights, she offered the following:
"The rules of flight for a particular time are not black and white. They vary according to location, vary according to the type of aircraft, vary according to the operation of the aircraft." Also to be considered are the regulations under which the pilot was flying, his training and a variety of other issues.
Whether the helicopter pilot, Wiggs, was permitted to fly in a path that put him over an area jammed with people and whether he was flying at a height that would be considered risky are some of the questions the NTSB investigators hopefully will answer.
Medivac craft
The FAA spokeswoman did point out that there is more leniency in terms of where helicopters can fly, as evidenced by Medivac craft that venture into areas which are closed to airplanes.
But even so, the eyewitness accounts of Wiggs' fatal flight do require close scrutiny. Those who watched Wiggs take off from his home and fly over the cemetery say he flew low over the parade route and that they could see him looking down at them as he passed overhead.
Although the retired truck driver had owned airplanes and helicopters before, this was the first time he kept one at his home. He built a small hangar and landing pad for the helicopter, which he got about two years ago.
Even if Wiggs had followed all the rules and regulations that govern the flying of such aircraft, the crash does highlight the ever present danger of taking off and landing in residential areas.
After the craft clipped the wire, it flipped over and slammed on the eastbound lane of Route 224. The engine kept running for several minutes, but the rotors snapped off when the craft hit the ground.
It is fortunate that it did not catch fire, that there was no explosion and that no one was hit by the debris scattered over the 50 area. The debris was from the large plastic glass bubble over the two-seat cockpit that shattered and from the aircraft itself that broke apart from the impact.
It is a miracle that there was only one death and there were no injuries. But such miracles aren't a certainty, which is why the NTSB investigation needs to be all-encompassing.