Posted Friday, Dec. 15, 2006 4 p.m.
Joshua M. Freeman, 42, president and CEO of Carl M. Freeman Companies, and Danielle Howell, 30, of Richmond, Virginia – the aircraft’s pilot – were killed Thursday evening in a helicopter crash outside Dagsboro, as heavy fog engulfed the area.
Coastal Point • RUSLANA LAMBERT:
Officials cordoned off the crash site as they investigated the circumstances that led to the death of Freeman and the craft’s pilot.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials investigating the crash joined Delaware State Police (DSP), Sussex County Emergency Medical Services (SCEMS) officials, members of the Dagsboro Volunteer Fire Department (DVFD) and officials from the medical examiner’s office on the scene, some 200 to 300 yards into a corn field just west of Townsends Road, between Armory Road and Route 26.
No cause for the crash has yet been determined. Heavy fog throughout the area was being considered as a possible factor, but officials on the scene Thursday night said skies had been relatively clear at the time of the crash, just after 6:15 p.m.
According to DSP Public Information Officer Sgt. Melissa Zebley, a DSP trooper responded to a report from a Townsend family member around 5 p.m. that a helicopter had landed on his property, in farm fields on the west side of Townsends Road, some 200 to 300 yards from the road.
Contacted at 5:25 p.m., the pilot reported to the trooper that she had planned to land at the Bear Trap Dunes Golf Course to pick up a male passenger but had landed instead in the Townsend family’s fields because that location was outside of the heavy fog. She said she had notified her passenger of the change and was awaiting his arrival before taking off for Maryland – an explanation that Zebley said satisfied Townsend.
Freeman, who also served as chairman of the Carl M. Freeman Foundation – a charitable organization that provides grants to organizations in Sussex County and in the Washington, D.C., area – was in Ocean View on Thursday night, attending a holiday party at the Carl M. Freeman Communities’ Den at Bear Trap Dunes development. He routinely traveled to the community via helicopter from his Gaithersburg, Md., home and the Olney, Md., home base of the company his father founded.
Coastal Point • FILE PHOTO:
Josh Freeman speaks at a recent event.
According to the FAA, the helicopter – a Bell 407, registered as N407JJ, and manufactured in 1998 – was owned by Full Service LLC of Washington, D.C. The aircraft, which was available for charter, was based at Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia, according to NTSB officials. Howell had just moved to the region from Las Vegas, Nev., Zebley said.
An initial telephone call to 911 reporting the helicopter crash was taken at 6:17 p.m. Thursday, roughly the same time a local fire police officer reported the crash via radio, according to SCEMS Public Information Officer Joseph Hopple. The first responding officer arrived on the scene at 6:20 p.m., with fire and DSP units arriving at 6:27 p.m.
The aircraft had apparently flown a mere 400 to 600 yards before crashing, making it across the roadway and clearing utility lines that run along the eastern side of the road. Wreckage was scattered along a 180-foot teardrop-shaped path, ending with the body of the craft, which lay resting on its side, its front crushed and rotors bent.
NTSB investigators during a press conference at the site of the crash on Friday afternoon emphasized that at this stage of the investigation they were just collecting evidence – both physical evidence from the wreckage and data from weather reports, communications and other avenues. Investigation of the air frame – the craft itself – will be considered, along with the pilot’s qualifications and experience, and conditions for flight at the time of the crash.
Brian Raynor, a senior air safety investigator with the NTSB, said he and his team, with investigators from the FAA, expected to be on-site with the aircraft wreckage until at least Saturday afternoon, during which time they would be examining the scene, collecting the wreckage for detailed inspection at an investigations facility and speaking with any potential witnesses in the area.
Raynor noted that Howell had been certified as a commercial pilot, with a rating for rotocraft helicopters, as well as for instruction in rotocraft helicopters. He said no rating for instrument-based navigation rating was connected to her pilot’s license and that the helicopter she was flying was not equipped for such navigation. As with most helicopters, it was also not equipped with a “black box” to record flight information.
Coastal Point • RUSLANA LAMBERT:
The helicopter traveled only an estimated 400 to 600 yards, from one farm field to a neighboring one, before smashing into the ground. Heavy, but patchy, fog was reported around the area Thursday evening, but no cause has been established.
After the on-site work is complete, Raynor the investigation will involve that detailed examination of the wreckage, and collection of any additional data, possibly including research by specialists in the field, if needed. Despite early speculation about the weather and about utility lines, he did not rule out mechanical failure as a possible cause or factor in the crash. “Helicopters are complex machines,” he said. “They have a lot of moving perts. There’s a lot to be documented.” He noted that Bell is considered a highly reputable manufacturer of helicopters.
Raynor said a preliminary report on the crash might be expected in a week but that the NTSB’s presidentially-appointed, five-member board was the sole body responsible for drawing conclusions from the factual evidence presented by NTSB investigators. That conclusion could take up to a year, Raynor said, particularly if additional research were required.
Hopple said Thursday night that both weather and overhead utility lines were being considered as possible factors in the crash, as would be the case in any helicopter crash. He said an initial report of problems with utilities in the area had been checked out but that lines appeared intact. Lines immediately adjacent to Townsend Road, a couple hundred yards from the crash site, were visibly intact.
Raynor confirmed Friday that no damage had been discovered in any surrounding structures, including utility lines and poles, and irrigation equipment in the fields. He said reports surrounding crashes often yielded reports that were later discredited and emphasized that NTSB investigators would consider all information in their report.
Hopple noted that utility lines, as seen from the air by pilots, are essentially invisible. Complicating that hazard may have been the weather Thursday. The pervasive fog that had lifted mid-morning on Thursday enveloped the area again Thursday afternoon, becoming extremely dense in certain locations and at certain times.
Though Hopple said reports described skies in the area of the crash as relatively clear when the craft took off, conditions throughout the evening varied from moment to moment and pockets of fog intermingled with clear spots across the countryside and roadways.
The National Weather Service in Mount Holly, N.J., had issued a heavy fog advisory for the entire state of Delaware at 6 p.m. Thursday, while the NWS’s Virginia office had issued a similar warning earlier in the afternoon for nearby areas of Maryland.
Coastal Point • M. PATRICIA TITUS:
The crash left a 180-foot trail of debris in a corn field near Dagsboro.
Overnight warnings continued to advise of widespread dense fog spread throughout the region. “Visibilities were zero or close to zero in many locations,” warnings still read in the wee hours of Friday morning. “Mariners are advised to be prepared for very low visibility this morning,” NWS warned.
Additional information on the crash will be reported on the Coastal Point Web site as it becomes available, with a full story in the Dec. 22 issue of the newspaper, including personal accounts of the impact of Joshua M. Freeman on the local community.
If you would like to share your personal comments regarding this tragedy, send an e-mail to darin.mccann@coastalpoint.com.
Special to the Coastal Point • PAUL KANAGIE:
The privately owned helicopter that crashed Thursday is pictured flying near Philadelphia in an undated photo.