Chelsea police chief, fire captain killed in helicopter crash
4/13/2006, 6:26 p.m. ET
By TOM KRISHER
The Associated Press    


SCIO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The city of Chelsea's police chief and a captain of the city's fire department were killed Thursday when their helicopter crashed while they were searching for a man who ran from a traffic stop, authorities said.

Police Chief Riley Scott Sumner and fire Capt. Matt Tuttle were aboard Tuttle's private helicopter when it went down shortly after 3 p.m. about five miles west of Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County sheriff's spokesman David Egeler said.

Tuttle had volunteered the use of his helicopter after hearing that police were searching for the man. The motorist, a 33-year-old Macomb County man, had ran after he was pulled over on nearby Interstate 94 and was discovered to have warrants for his arrest, Egeler said.

Washtenaw County Sheriff Dan Minzey said a police officer witnessed the crash and immediately tried to perform CPR on the men, but they were pronounced dead after paramedics arrived.

Tanja Shields, of Ann Arbor, said she noticed the helicopter seemed to be flying slowly as she was standing outside a nearby business.

"It was almost like he knew something was wrong," she said of the pilot. "There was no smoke, no weird noises. All of a sudden it just dropped really, really fast."

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration had arrived at the crash site by early evening, the sheriff said.

Chelsea, a city of about 4,800 people, is located about 15 miles west of Ann Arbor and about 50 miles west of Detroit.

Not enough forward velocity to auto-rotate when the engine died.   oooops

Copied this to the BOTS forum. Thanks for the update.

Chelsea Police Chief Scott Sumner with his sons Riley and Mitchell sit atop their champion pumpkin.

salute

It's always sad to loose a firefighter

Quoted: It's always sad to loose a firefighter

It's always sad to lose a good policeman too...

Quoted: Quoted: It's always sad to loose a firefighter Is's always sad to lose a good policeman too...

This is terrible news.  God bless their families.  

HH

aww man, what a shame.

RIP, you will be missed.

Well Shoot...

Damn. Prayers sent. May God bless their families.

I hope they catch the bastard.

WTF are you going to say to those babies?  

That really sucks.

God bless the families of these two brave men; We've lost two heroes.