Leo Rodriguez looked up from his barn roof to see everything going down.
Rodriguez, who was working Thursday afternoon near McMinnville Municipal Airport in Oregon, had bent over to handle a task when the sound of helicopter rotors suddenly gave way to catastrophe. “I heard the helicopter noise, I bent over to do something and then boom I looked up and everything was going down,” he told KPTV News.
The collision involved two aircraft: a Robinson R22 and an Airbus H125. Rodriguez described the aftermath with chilling precision. “There was a larger one intact still, the tail end of it was struck and then it turned and it propelled down and the other one dropped straight down,” he continued.
Three people died in the mid-air crash, officials confirmed. Texas flight instructor Maddie Aasbo, 22, was killed alongside a 31-year-old student pilot from the UK whose name has not yet been released publicly. Oregon pilot Tyler Sturdevant, 38, who was flying the Airbus H125, also perished.
The Robinson R22, a two-seat light utility helicopter, was carrying Aasbo and the British student pilot when it collided with the larger Airbus H125. The crash occurred in the vicinity of McMinnville Municipal Airport, a facility located southwest of Portland that serves general aviation traffic in Yamhill County.
Sturdevant, 38, was piloting the H125, a single-engine helicopter commonly used for utility work, tourism and flight training support. The aircraft’s tail section sustained damage in the collision before the machine turned and descended, according to Rodriguez’s account.
The student pilot, 31, remains unidentified as officials work to notify family members overseas. British nationals involved in fatal aviation incidents abroad typically require extended coordination between consular officials and local authorities before names can be disclosed.
Aasbo, the 22-year-old instructor from Texas, was operating in a training capacity aboard the Robinson R22. Flight instructors in their early twenties often accumulate hours rapidly through intensive teaching schedules at flight schools, building experience toward advanced certifications or commercial pilot positions.
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration typically investigate fatal mid-air collisions involving civil aircraft, though no official timeline for preliminary findings was immediately available from either agency.
Rodriguez’s vantage point on his barn roof placed him directly beneath the flight path of the two helicopters as they maneuvered near the airport perimeter. His description of one aircraft dropping “straight down” while the larger H125 turned and descended suggests the collision occurred at relatively low altitude, leaving minimal time for either pilot to execute emergency procedures.
McMinnville Municipal Airport sits amid rural farmland and vineyard country, with scattered residential properties and agricultural buildings surrounding its approaches. Such environments frequently place witnesses like Rodriguez in position to observe aviation incidents from close range.
The crash represents one of multiple fatal helicopter training accidents in the United States this year, though each incident involves distinct operational circumstances. Robinson R22 aircraft, widely used for primary rotorcraft instruction, have been involved in previous training mishaps, while the Airbus H125 serves a broader range of commercial and private operations.