Helicopter pilot dies in crash

A pilot who learned his craft in Vietnam died Tuesday morning when he lost control of his helicopter while stringing power lines for the Bonneville Power Administration.

Nearby BPA workers rushed to the crash site at 9:40 a.m. and pulled 57-year-old John J. Cooley, of Cheney, from the wreckage. They administered cardio-pulmonary resuscitation but couldn’t revive the longtime pilot, Spokane County sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said.

“Paramedics arrived and attempted to treat the pilot. But he was pronounced dead at the scene,” Reagan said.

Cooley, a 29-year veteran BPA pilot, was flying a 1994 Bell Jet Ranger when it crashed in a dusty field on Kaiser Aluminum property bordered by Hawthorne Road to the north, Market Street to the east, Magnesium Road to the south and Nevada Street to the west.

BPA spokesman Ed Mosey said Cooley was stringing transmission-power lines as part of an 87-mile project that stretches from just south of the old Kaiser Mead smelter to Grand Coulee Dam. About 20 BPA employees were working on the ground and watched the helicopter crash.

“According to observations, something went wrong,” Mosey said. “He had trouble controlling the aircraft, the aircraft stalled. And at that elevation he was unable to power up enough to get out of the stall.”

The nose of the helicopter went up, the tail went down and the helicopter then fell 200 to 300 feet to the ground. The rotor came off and sheared off one of the nearby wooden power poles. Reagan said it appeared that a portion of the rotor also struck the helicopter.

The windshield was smashed out of the blue-and-white helicopter and the landing rails were knocked off. Sheriff’s deputies taped off an area about the size of two football fields and secured the scene for an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration, Reagan said.

Deputy Martin Tucker said he was the third deputy to arrive at the crash. He said the helicopter landed on the side where Cooley was sitting.

BPA employees “rolled it back over when it crashed and pulled the pilot out. At least it was easy to get to,” Tucker said of the crash site, which was located next to a BPA access road on the Kaiser property. “It’s just unfortunate.”

The helicopter crashed in a dusty field. With the jet fuel on board, Reagan said the crash could have caused a brush fire that would have been difficult to contain.

“The first paramedics on the scene shut off the fuel cut-off switch,” Reagan said. “We were fortunate there was no fire.”

Mosey said Cooley was flying one of six BPA-owned helicopters that serve two primary missions. They string lines to the huge, steel towers and they also fly surveillance along 15,000 miles of BPA high-voltage lines in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana.

“They are dedicated public servants,” Mosey said of Cooley and the other helicopter pilots. “They do this to keep the lights on.”

Sheriff’s crews quickly closed off access to the private property. A steady stream of BPA employees, Cooley’s co-workers and emergency vehicles drove the road into the site Tuesday. FAA investigators arrived at 10:40 a.m.

“The reaction throughout the agency is one of shock,” Mosey said. “He was a 29-year employee. Everybody knew of him if they didn’t know him.”

On Tuesday, Cooley was using his helicopter to pull a small cable that was attached the larger transmission line, Mosey said. The helicopter is used to pull the smaller line up to a pulley on the tower arm. “It’s like threading a needle,” Mosey said.

That work has been done by helicopters for about 25 years, he said. It’s the first time BPA has lost either a helicopter or a pilot while performing that type of work.

“Anytime you get in a helicopter, fly 200 or 300 feet off the ground and lift a cable, it’s dangerous,” Mosey said. “John was a veteran. We don’t know what went wrong.”