McMINNVILLE, Oregon.- Three people were killed on Thursday afternoon when two helicopters collided in midair near McMinnville Municipal Airport, about 35 miles southwest of Portland, Oregon, authorities said. There were no survivors.
The collision happened at about 2:15 p.m. local time, and the aircraft came down in a privately owned farm field near Highway 233, east of McMinnville, in the rural Dayton area. Emergency crews responded along with the McMinnville Police Department, Oregon State Police and fire crews, and Oregon Route 233 was closed for about a mile near the airport.
Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott identified the victims during a news conference on Thursday evening. Aboard the Robinson R22 were flight instructor Maddie Aasbo, 22, of Texas, and a student pilot from the United Kingdom whose identity is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. The sole occupant of the other aircraft, an Airbus AS350, was identified as Tyler Sturdevant, 38, of nearby Newberg, Oregon.
The Federal Aviation Administration initially reported a different split of the occupants between the two aircraft; the sheriff's updated account, confirmed by the sheriff's office statement, places Aasbo and the student pilot in the Robinson and Sturdevant alone in the Airbus. One of the helicopters belonged to Jerry Trimble Helicopters, a flight training company based at the airport, which said it is cooperating with authorities.
The scene has been turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, which will lead the investigation into how the two aircraft came together. NTSB investigators were at the scene on Thursday night, and the cause of the collision has not yet been determined.
Sources: USA TODAY, October 29, 2026; CNN, October 29, 2026; PEOPLE, October 29, 2026; Statesman Journal, October 29, 2026; KOIN via KCAU, October 29, 2026.