Three people were killed when two helicopters collided in midair and crashed into a farm field near McMinnville Municipal Airport in Oregon on Thursday afternoon, October 29, 2026, in a tragedy that has shaken a small aviation community in the Willamette Valley and triggered a federal investigation. The Oregon helicopter crash claimed the lives of a 22-year-old Texas flight instructor, a student pilot from the United Kingdom and a veteran Oregon pilot, and it closed a nearby highway as emergency crews worked through the wreckage.
Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott confirmed during a news conference that there were no survivors. The collision happened at about 2:15 p.m. local time, a few miles east of the airport, in a private farm field near Highway 233 and Southeast Stringtown Road in rural Dayton, a small city east of McMinnville, about 35 to 40 miles southwest of Portland.
Emergency crews were called shortly after 2:14 p.m. on Thursday after reports that two helicopters had collided near the intersection of Highway 154 and Stringtown Road, between McMinnville and Dayton. When deputies and firefighters arrived, they found both aircraft down in a private farm field. Law enforcement photographs released later showed a red helicopter crumpled in pieces and a green helicopter lying upside down in the field.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the collision involved a Robinson R22 and an Airbus H125, the designation often used for the AS350B3 model. The agency initially reported that only the pilot was aboard the Robinson helicopter, but Sheriff Elliott later corrected that account: two people were aboard the Robinson, and one person was aboard the Airbus. All three died at the scene.
The Oregon Department of Transportation closed Oregon Route 233 for about one mile west of Dayton near the McMinnville airport, and Highway 154 was also closed at first. A portion of Highway 233 remained closed as of 7:30 a.m. Friday, October 30, as investigators continued their work. Despite the crash, airport operations were not interrupted. Airport Manager John Paskell said McMinnville Municipal Airport remained open and operational on both October 29 and October 30.
The crash happened on a cloudy day in the broad, flat Willamette Valley, near the foothills of the Coast Range, in the heart of Oregon wine country. McMinnville, home to about 34,000 people, sits roughly an hour's drive southwest of Portland and is known for its vineyards, its small-town downtown and a busy general-aviation airport that supports flight schools and charter operators.
McMinnville Municipal Airport is a hub for helicopter training and charter flying in Yamhill County. Two local companies were connected to the flight. Jerry Trimble Helicopters, a flight training school and rental service based at the airport, confirmed that one of its aircraft was involved. Precision, a McMinnville-based helicopter charter company, employed the pilot of the second aircraft.
The Robinson R22 is one of the most widely used training helicopters in the world: small, light and inexpensive to operate, it is a common first step for student pilots learning to fly. The Airbus AS350B3, also known as the H125, is a larger single-engine helicopter used for charter work, utility flying and training, and it is a familiar sight at airports across the American West.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the Robinson was on an instructional flight and the Airbus was on a maintenance flight, the kind of flight typically flown after maintenance or repair work to check that an aircraft is performing as expected. That detail matters to investigators, because it means the two aircraft may have been flying different kinds of profiles, at different speeds and altitudes, in the same airspace near the airport.
Midair collisions are rare but often fatal, and they are among the most closely studied accidents in general aviation. Investigators look first at where each aircraft was, how high it was flying, who was talking to whom on the radio, and whether either pilot could have seen the other in time. Near a busy training airport, where instructional flights, maintenance flights and charter departures share the same sky, those questions become central.
The crash scene has been turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, which will lead the investigation. An NTSB team was on its way to Oregon on Friday to examine the wreckage, document the debris field and begin the painstaking process of reconstructing the final moments of both flights.
Investigators will review radar and radio recordings, weather reports, maintenance records for both aircraft, and the training and flight histories of the pilots. They will also examine the wreckage itself for clues about the angle and speed of the collision, and they will interview witnesses on the ground and anyone who was in contact with either aircraft before it went down.
Officials have not said what caused the collision, and they have declined to speculate while the investigation is in its earliest stage. A preliminary report from the NTSB is usually published within a few weeks of a crash, while a final report, with a probable cause, can take a year or longer. For the families of the three victims, that timeline means answers will come slowly.
One question investigators are likely to focus on is how two helicopters operating from the same airport area came to occupy the same airspace at the same moment. Training flights often involve repeated manoeuvres, climbs and descents close to the airport, while maintenance flights follow checklists that can include hovering, power checks and handling tests. Reconstructing both flight paths, second by second, will be the core of the inquiry.
Sheriff Elliott, who identified the victims at a news conference, said the crash involved a 1995 Robinson R22 helicopter and a 2018 Airbus AS350B3 helicopter, and he confirmed that the scene had been handed to federal investigators. The sheriff's office has not released the name of the student pilot from the United Kingdom, pending proper notification of the family.
Jerry Trimble Helicopters said in a statement that it was cooperating with local and federal authorities. "Jerry Trimble Helicopters is deeply saddened to confirm that one of our aircraft was involved in an aviation incident this afternoon, October 29, 2026, near McMinnville Municipal Airport," the company said, adding that it was working with investigators to determine the cause of the collision.
Precision, the charter company that employed Sturdevant, also said it was cooperating with the investigation and supporting the families of those involved. Sturdevant, according to his professional profile, had been flying for 20 years and served as a pilot and check airman, a senior role in which experienced pilots train and evaluate other pilots.
Across the local aviation community, the reaction has been one of grief and disbelief. Flight schools and charter operators in a town the size of McMinnville are tightly knit, and the loss of an instructor, a student and a veteran check airman in a single afternoon has been felt across the airport and beyond.
The Oregon helicopter crash matters for three reasons. First, it is a human tragedy: three people, at three very different stages of their flying lives, died together. Aasbo, at 22, was already teaching others to fly. The student pilot from the United Kingdom had travelled thousands of miles to learn. Sturdevant, at 38, had spent two decades in the air and was trusted to judge the skills of other pilots.
Second, the crash is a reminder of the risks that come with general aviation, the world of small aircraft, flight schools and charter operators that operates outside the airline system. Unlike commercial jets, small helicopters fly low, often without air traffic control directing every move, and pilots rely heavily on seeing and avoiding other traffic. When that system fails, the consequences are usually catastrophic.
Third, the investigation's findings could have wider lessons for flight training. If investigators find that procedures, radio use, flight patterns or maintenance-flight practices played a role, flight schools and operators across the country will pay attention. Midair collisions near training airports are rare, but each one prompts a fresh look at how busy, uncontrolled airspace is managed.
In the coming days, the NTSB team will finish its on-scene work, document the wreckage and release the site. The wreckage will be examined in detail, and investigators will begin pulling together radar data, communications recordings and maintenance records. The highway closures around the crash site are expected to lift as that work is completed.
The families of the victims will be briefed as information becomes available, and the name of the student pilot from the United Kingdom is expected to be released once relatives have been notified. Funeral and memorial arrangements have not yet been announced.
A preliminary NTSB report, setting out the basic facts of the flight, the aircraft and the accident sequence, is expected within a few weeks. The full investigation, including analysis and a probable cause, will take considerably longer. Until then, officials have urged the public not to speculate about what brought the two helicopters together in the sky above Yamhill County.
The two helicopters collided midair near McMinnville Municipal Airport in Oregon and crashed into a private farm field near Highway 233 and Southeast Stringtown Road in rural Dayton, a few miles east of McMinnville and about 35 to 40 miles southwest of Portland.
The victims were Maddie Aasbo, 22, a flight instructor from Texas; a 31-year-old student pilot from the United Kingdom, whose name has not been released pending family notification; and Tyler Sturdevant, 38, a pilot from Newberg, Oregon, who worked for Precision.
A 1995 Robinson R22 helicopter on an instructional flight, operated in connection with Jerry Trimble Helicopters, and a 2018 Airbus AS350B3, also known as the H125, on a maintenance flight, piloted by Sturdevant.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation, with the Federal Aviation Administration also involved. The crash scene was turned over to the two federal agencies by the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office.
No. McMinnville Municipal Airport remained open and operational on October 29 and October 30, according to Airport Manager John Paskell, although nearby Highway 233 was closed for about a mile near the crash site.
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