The pilot of a private helicopter and his passenger were killed yesterday afternoon when their aircraft crashed and burst into flames in a marshy field on Kent Island in Queen Anne's County, authorities said.
The crash occurred about 11 miles south of the eastern end of the Bay Bridge, less than a mile south of Romancoke in a marshy field near Green Creek.
Pronounced dead at the scene were the pilot, Andrew Louis Simon, 54, of Silver Spring, and his passenger, Edward S. Mehlman, 62, of Bethesda, state police said.
Simon was a flight instructor and Mehlman was a deputy state medical examiner for Montgomery County and a licensed pilot, said state police Cpl. Arthur Lohman of the Centreville barracks.
Late last night, authorities said the crash occurred after the helicopter's main rotor became separated from the aircraft. The cause of the separation is being investigated.
The helicopter left Easton Airport at an unknown time on a flight to photograph real estate on Kent Island, authorities said. The helicopter crashed about 2: 15 p.m. in an area of 4-foot high cattails between a group of pine trees and the creek.
The helicopter's main rotor was found at the edge of the creek, and the rest of the charred and crumpled remains were found about 190 feet away. The bodies were found near the wreckage, authorities said.
The crash site was about 150 yards from the home of Ralph and Eleanor Wenzel off Keene Farm Road. The house was not damaged.
Authorities said the helicopter was a Fairchild-Hiller FH-1100 built in 1969 and had a passenger capacity of five. It originally was designed for military observation and was the first turbine-powered helicopter to be developed for business use.
State police Sgt. Laura Lu Herman said the helicopter caught fire immediately after hitting the ground. She said the aircraft's altitude was about 200 feet when the rotor separated. Its direction of travel was not known, Herman said.
Both bodies were taken to the state medical examiner's office in Baltimore for autopsies.
Brian Rayner, an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators are trying to find out if the pilot was in voice contact with any air traffic controller so that tapes of conversations could be obtained and examined for information.
Rayner said witnesses reported hearing a loud popping sound just before seeing parts of the helicopter fall to the ground. "The aircraft was consumed in a post-crash fire," he said.
Eleanor Wenzel said she and her husband were arriving home about 3 p.m. when they saw several pieces of fire equipment parked outside their residence.
"We didn't know what was going on," she said.
Robert J. Swann, of the Maryland Emergency Response Team, said most of the fuel and lubricants aboard the aircraft were consumed by the fire and the few gallons that did not burn were prevented from entering the creek by absorbents laid down by team members.
"Environmentally, the threat was very minor and we're going to make certain it remains that way," Swann said.
Pub Date: 4/27/98
