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Helicopter pilot in fatal crash once had license suspended Published in the Asbury Park Press 7/25/00By PETER EICHENBAUMLAW ENFORCEMENT WRITER The pilot of a helicopter that crashed in Hawaii on Friday, killing a family of four from Shrewsbury, was involved in a 1996 midair collision in Alaska that led to the suspension of his commercial license. Federal regulators eventually suspended Kirsch's commercial
pilot's license for 45 days, said Roland Herwig, a spokesman for the Federal
Aviation Administration.
The suspension took effect Dec. 7, 1998, more than two years
after the crash.
Kirsch, who managed to land the badly damaged helicopter, a
McDonnell Douglas MD369D, was slightly injured, as were three of his passengers,
according to a report filed by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The Italian tourists and the pilot of the Cessna were not injured.
At the time of that midair collision, Kirsch was working for
TundraCopters of Fairbanks, Alaska. A man who answered the telephone there
yesterday said he had not heard of Kirsch.
On Friday, Kirsch was piloting an American Eurocopter twin-engine
AS355 when it crashed during a 35-minute tour of the West Maui mountains.
Killed in the crash were William John "Jack" Jordan, a Seton
Hall University economics professor and a former borough school board president;
his wife, Jan Sari Herscovitz, a psychiatrist; and the couple's two children,
Maxwell Jordan, 16, and Lindsey Jordan, 15. Two teen-age girls from Texas
also were killed.
The bodies of the victims were recovered from the 2,900-foot-high
crash site Saturday. The wreckage was removed Sunday from a mountainside
deep in Iao Valley. It was scattered 200 feet down a steep slope, said
George Petterson, an NTSB investigator.
"It's very fragmented," Petterson said. "There is fire damage
to it."
Officials from Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, an air-tour business
that employed Kirsch and owned the helicopter, were meeting yesterday with
NTSB investigators, and a company employee said they would not be able
to comment until the investigation is completed.
Kirsch was a seasoned pilot, having logged more than 12,000
helicopter hours, according to Blue Hawaiian's Web site. He also was an
Army veteran, having served in Vietnam.
Kirsch also had spent several years working in Hollywood as
a movie stunt pilot, said an associate, Mitch Mignano, chief pilot for
Pacific Helicopter Tours.
Kirsch piloted a helicopter that carried the camera in "Breakout,"
a 1975 film starring Charles Bronson in which a pilot engineers the escape
of a falsely accused prisoner.
The helicopter he was piloting Friday crashed about 26 minutes
into its flight, according to a transponder recovered from the chopper,
said Wayne Pollack of the NTSB.
The helicopter departed Kahului heliport at 9:54 a.m., headed
northwest, then traveled counterclockwise around the island until it was
about 10 miles west of the airport.
The helicopter was in Iao Valley, traveling at 3,700 feet,
by 10:19 a.m. A minute later, the chopper dropped to 3,100 feet and crashed
a short time later, Pollack said.
A preliminary report on the cause of the crash should be ready
by the end of the week, Petterson said.
Peter Eichenbaum: (732) 922-6000, Ext. 4212 or eich@app.com.
The Honolulu Advertiser and The Associated Press contributed
to this story.
Published on July 25, 2000
Copyright 1997-2000 IN Jersey.
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