Report says pilot missed helipad before deadly crash

The National Transportation Safety Board says the pilot in a helicopter crash that killed two men at a California airport missed the portable helipad he was trying to land on.

Pilot Bruce Allen Erickson was the owner and chief executive officer of American Bank of Montana with branches in Whitefish as well as Bozeman, Big Timber, Big Sky and Livingston.

The entire sequence of events leading up to the Nov. 18 crash, including at least four landing attempts on the helipad, were caught on airport security cameras and several witnesses’ cellphone cameras.

The crash killed Erickson of Rancho Santa Fe and 60-year-old Wayne Frank Lewis of Cardiff-by-the-Sea.

The federal report shows that Erickson had piloted the Airbus AS350 helicopter several times since September, but always with a professional pilot present.

According to the medical examiner’s office, Erickson was practicing landings when the helicopter’s tail struck the ground and it spun out of control along a runway.

Video of the scene showed the aircraft spinning wildly on the ground for several minutes before catching fire.

— Associated Press