IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 2356T Make/Model: R22 Description: R-22
Date: 11/15/2012 Time: 1750
Event Type: Incident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Unknown
LOCATION
City: PORTLAND State: OR Country: US
DESCRIPTION
N2356T ROBINSON R22 ROTORCRAFT MADE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING IN A SCHOOL
YARD, PORTLAND, OR
INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 2 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
OTHER DATA
Activity: Unknown Phase: Landing Operation: OTHER
FAA FSDO: PORTLAND, OR (NM09) Entry date: 11/16/2012
http://registry.faa.gov/N2356T
Helicopter towed from field after emergency landing behind Southwest Portland middle school
http://photos.oregonlive.com/photo-essay
The sun was out and the sixth graders in Steve Sandvold's physical education class at Robert Gray Middle School were pleading with the teacher to let them run outside Thursday morning. But call it luck, providence or just reluctance to go out in the chilly air, Sandvold said no.
Not long after, he was especially glad he made that call. Two men in a helicopter out of Hillsboro were forced to make an emergency landing onto the Southwest Portland sports field where the students would have been running their laps.
"I can just see the pilot trying to make a landing" with students running around, he said, fearing that the emergency might have turned out to be far worse.
Portland Police said the helicopter, whose occupants have not been identified, made the emergency landing in the field a little after 10 a.m. after a warning light came on. Neither man was injured, said Portland Police Sgt. Greg Pashley. No one is believed to have been in the field at the time.
Workers from Hillsboro Aviation dismantled the helicopter's rotor blades and carted the helicopter away early Thursday afternoon. Hillsboro Aviation's president did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The landing marks the second time in two years that an aircraft has used the school's field for a landing, earning the field the moniker "Robert Gray Regional Airport," police officers at the scene quipped. On Oct. 10, 2010, a small, single engine airplane that was experiencing mechanical problems also landed at the school. No one was injured in that landing.
"This is a winding road, hilly section of Portland, lots of homes, a school, obviously and they were alert enough to find a nice big field when they felt like they needed to put the helicopter down," said Pashley.
The students did not see the landing, the school said, and people did not hear it, said the school's head custodian, who would only give his first name, Ray. A call came into the school's office, notifying them that a helicopter had landed in the field and the custodian went to check it out. The blades were still spinning, he said, adding that at first he thought it was a helicopter from Friday Night Flights, in which helicopters for local news stations cover select high school football games.
"I was going to ask for a ride," he joked.
But he soon realized what had happened. Two men -- one appeared to be an instructor and one appeared to be a student pilot -- emerged from the helicopter, saying that an indicator light had come on and that it appeared the helicopter was losing power.
A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately return a message for comment.
http://photos.oregonlive.com/photo-essay
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