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Police copter smacks into bay
By TAMARA LUSH, Times Staff Writer TAMPA -- Shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday, Tampa Police Department pilot Gary Price was hundreds of feet in the air and in big trouble. His helicopter lurched to one side, then the tail rotor stopped. The aircraft began spinning. Below was a thicket of mangroves where the choppy water of Tampa Bay meets the southern tip of MacDill Air Force Base. Price and his partner, Paul Federico, did what they are trained to do: make as soft an emergency landing as possible. To minimize injuries, pilots are taught to idle the engine and lift the nose to force air under the helicopter as it descends. "It sounded very loud and churning," said Nancy Frye, who was wading in the water off a beach a few hundred feet away. "All of a sudden there was a large splash. . . . We thought the worst." The helicopter, equipped with a $300,000 camera, landed hard in the water and rolled onto its side. Witnesses said one of the main rotor blades was torn off and the windshield was broken. The camera was destroyed. Federico, sitting on the left side of the helicopter, was submerged in 2 feet of water, said Tampa police Lt. Paul Driscoll. As Federico pulled his head out of the water, Price removed his safety belt and Federico's belt. Price was able to get out of the aircraft and pull Federico out with him, Driscoll said. Tech Sgt. Keith Ford, from MacDill, the first paramedic to arrive on the scene, saw Price standing in the water, leaning against the helicopter. Federico was lying on top of the helicopter. Price said he had a pain in his right side, and that Federico's back hurt. "They were very calm for what they went through," Ford said. "It was pretty impressive." The two men were brought by boat to the MacDill marina nearby, and flown to Tampa General Hospital, where they were treated and released several hours later. Price suffered broken ribs, and Federico, a back strain, said Tampa police spokeswoman Katie Hughes. They are expected to recover fully. An hour after the crash, Federico apologized to Tampa Mayor Dick Greco in the Tampa General Hospital emergency room. "The first thing he said was, 'I'm sorry about the (helicopter),' " Greco said. "These guys were very lucky. They're total professionals." Price, 39, came to the department a little more than a year ago from the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, where he was a pilot. Federico, 46, has been with the department since 1982. He is trained as an observer on police helicopters. They were on routine patrol near MacDill when the problems began Sunday, Driscoll said. "They did what they could do to find the safest location to put the helicopter down," said Driscoll, who runs the department's aviation patrols. It was the second Tampa police helicopter crash this year. In both instances, a Hughes OH6 helicopter went down. The 30-year-old Army surplus helicopter is valued at $250,000. In January, a Hughes OH6 was heavily damaged during a training exercise that simulated an in-flight engine failure. The two police pilots on board suffered minor injuries. Price and Federico were not involved in that crash. Tampa police have five helicopters. Three are the military surplus Hughes OH6 models, although two are now inoperable because of the crash Sunday and the crash in January. The two other helicopters were recently bought and placed into service about a month ago. The department is fastidious about its maintenance, said Driscoll, who added that an investigation will be conducted into Sunday's crash. The National Transportation Safety Board will also investigate. "From what I see so far, they did what they were trained to do," Driscoll said. "The aircraft can be replaced. The aircraft can be fixed. You can't replace people." In January 1995, Tampa police Officer Norris Epps drowned after the helicopter he was riding in nose-dived near the Howard Frankland Bridge at night. Epps, 30, was riding as an observer in the Hughes 369E helicopter while searching for a missing Orlando firefighter when it crashed. -- Staff writers Amy Herdy and Ed Quioco contributed to this report.
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