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Authorities on Monday identified two pilots who died after their helicopters collided mid-air on Sunday in southern New Jersey.
Kenneth Kirsch, 65, and Michael Greenberg, 71, were friends who both lived in New Jersey and would often have breakfast together at a cafe near the crash site in Hammonton, about 56 kilometres southeast of Philadelphia.
Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel said in a statement that Kirsch was pronounced dead at an area hospital after being flown there, while Greenberg died at the crash site.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) described the crash as a mid-air collision between an Enstrom F-28A helicopter and Enstrom 280C helicopter over Hammonton Municipal Airport. Only the pilots were on board each aircraft.
Sal Silipino, owner of a cafe near the crash site, said the pilots were regulars at the restaurant. He said he and other customers watched the helicopters take off before one began spiraling downward, followed by the other.
“It was shocking,” he said. “I’m still shaking after that happened.”
Hammonton is a town of about 15,000 people located in Atlantic County in the southern part of New Jersey, about 56 kilometres southeast of Philadelphia. The town has a history of agriculture and is located near the Pine Barrens, a forested wilderness area that covers more than 405,000 hectares.
The FAA and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have been notified and will be investigating the crash, Friel said.
Investigators will likely first look to review any communications between the two pilots and whether they were able to see each other, said Alan Diehl, a former crash investigator for the FAA and NTSB.
“Virtually all mid-air collisions are a failure to what they call ‘see and avoid,”‘ Diehl said. “Clearly they’ll be looking at the out-of-cockpit views of the two aircraft and seeing if one pilot was approaching from the blind side.”
Although it was mostly cloudy at the time of the crash, winds were light and visibility was good, according to the weather forecasting company AccuWeather.