NEAR FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) — As questions loom whether there were warning signs before a Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue helicopter fell from the sky and crashed into home, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony provide the public with answers.
On Tuesday, Tony said that the department is still recovering from the tragedy, which killed BSFR Captain Terryson Jackson, In doing so, Tony also said that the mayor of Broward County reached out to him to find solutions to fix what happened.
Tony said he received a commitment by Mayor Lamar Fisher that the county will secure a contract for two brand new state-of-the-art helicopters.
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are currently looking through the rubble and are taking take a closer look at the chopper that crashed in Pompano Beach on Monday.
“We’re making due as best as we can,” Tony said.
On June 8, Sheriff Tony met with the Broward County Commission to speak about the department’s budget. During the workshop, Tony specifically talked about BSO’s aging aviation fleet and potential issues.
“We really operate three helicopters, two law enforcement, one fire rescue,” Tony said. “Fire rescue helicopter that we’re utilizing has been around since 1999. We’ve been piecemealing parts for years to maintain flight capabilities.”
Tony stated that the number of calls that their choppers are responding to has gone up significantly.
“And after 600 flight hours, these aircraft need to be grounded, comprehensive strip-down maintenance and repaired, etc before they could go back in the air,” Tony said. “Because of the volume that we are now handling, our aircraft are in the air, up to 1,000 hours.”
On Monday morning, just after receiving a call, a BSFR chopper took off from Pompano Beach’s Airpark base as it headed to North Lauderdale. The pilot of the chopper reported a problem.
There was a fire on board and engine failure, which cause the chopper to spiral out of control and crashed into an apartment complex.
Lurean Wheaton, 65, was identified as one of the victims that was killed at the apartment complex.
Two other BSFR members on board were able to get out safely.
“Broward County is mourning for them and we will get through it together, but it’s a sad time here in Broward County,” said Mayor Fisher.
Fisher, who is from Pompano Beach, and commissioners, are now ready to discuss the aging aviation unit and to move forward in hopes of avoiding another tragedy.
“In meeting with the sheriff this afternoon and administration, with their administration, to create a plan to obviously replace this aircraft and work on the other ones as well,” Fisher said.
“I’ve got a verbal agreement from the mayor and the deputy county administrator, that they were willing to get at least two of these modern helicopters, which is in our proposal, two H145’s,” Tony said. “With tragedy, it is an opportunity. We can get this right or we can continue to wait for the next tragedy to take place.”
While it takes three years or so to build out an H145 chopper, Tony said that he received a call from the president of Airbus on Monday, who told him a contract fell through with another client, and that they had two available choppers that will be completed relatively soon.
BSO are now hoping to put that agreement on paper and get the contract done.
The long-term plan, according to Tony, who received a commitment from the mayor, is to procure four more choppers so that the entire aviation fleet is no longer old and outdated.
Tony also said that both of the crew members who survived the crash were released from the hospital and were upgraded to good condition.