There’s one thing friends and loved ones knew for certain about Illinois State Trooper Erin Hehl and civilian pilot George Kurelic Jr.
“They both loved to fly,” said Master Sgt. James Griffith of the state police Air One unit. “When they left, they were both excited to be going out flying.”
But this time, Hehl and Kurelic would not return. The two Chicagoans were killed early Thursday when Air One crashed and burned at south suburban Frankfort Airport during a training mission.
The accident is shrouded in questions.
Investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board had not determined the cause by late Thursday. They said they believe the helicopter was performing a series of “touch and gos”–quick takeoffs and landings–when it crashed at 3:49 a.m.
Also unclear is who was piloting the craft. Hehl, 34, who had received her pilot certification Sept. 14, was assigned to Air One as an observer but was not yet authorized to command the helicopter, Griffith said.
“Clearly, she was in the embryonic stages of becoming a pilot,” said state police director Terrance Gainer.
Though winds were high Thursday morning at Frankfort Airport, 22763 Center Rd., NTSB air safety investigator Steve Wilson downplayed the role of wind in the crash.
“We’ll look at weather but don’t believe it was a significant factor,” he said.
And the AS350B A-Star helicopter, which was being leased by the state police, was built in 1987 and had a clean maintenance record, Gainer said.
“There’s no reason to believe there was mechanical failure,” Wilson said.
Clues about the cause might come from gouge marks found in the dirt about 25 to 50 yards from where the craft came to rest. Gainer said the marks probably came from the helicopter’s landing skids.
The only parts of the craft that survived were the tail and the two skids, which Gainer said probably broke off before the helicopter caught fire on the tarmac.
Hehl, a veteran trooper with 11 years’ service, had logged 70 hours of flight time as a pilot. Kurelic, 42, a civilian employee of the Chicago Police Department’s motor-maintenance division, flew Air One under contract with the state police. Gainer said Kurelic had logged more than 2,700 flight hours and was a chief warrant officer in the Army National Guard for the last nine years.
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Although state police are training pilots such as Hehl, it is still “more cost-effective” to hire civilians under contract, Gainer said.
Hehl is the second state trooper to die this week in the line of duty. On Monday, Trooper Anthony Millison of Dolton died when he slipped and fell from an overpass while directing traffic around an accident on an icy stretch of Interstate Highway 57.
“It’s been pretty tough,” said state police Lt. Ted Rizo at the crash site Thursday morning. “This just makes it more tough to handle.”
Frankfort police and firefighters received a 911 call at 3:52 a.m. from an employee at ITW Deltar, near the airport. Accounts of what happened are sketchy, since no one witnessed the craft going down, police said.
“To my knowledge, there was nobody who actually watched the impact,” said Frankfort police Cmdr. Ron Smith.
When firefighters arrived, the helicopter was “totally engulfed in flames.”
“There was just a lot of fuel burning and some magnesium,” said Frankfort Fire Protection District Division Chief Bob Wilson. Wilson said it took about 20 minutes to extinguish the blaze.
Gainer said that the early hour of the helicopter’s flight should not have hampered the pilots’ performance.
“The majority of Air One missions are during nighttime hours,” he said.
Gainer, who lives in the same South Side neighborhood as Hehl’s family, had flown with her in a helicopter before, though not while she was the pilot.
“She was an outstanding trooper, who also happened to be a wife and a mother, who also happened to be a person who very much loved being in the air,” he said.
Gainer said Hehl had been one of the first two troopers to volunteer for the department’s helicopter flight-training program. Gainer said Hehl, as tactical mission commander for Thursday’s flight, was responsible for monitoring the radio and advising the pilot on where to position the helicopter.
“Erin was like that,” Griffith said. “She had a passion for flying that was second to none.”
Griffith said Hehl was very proud of learning to fly. On Wednesday evening, she gave a presentation on the Air One program at a community policing event in west suburban Villa Park.
Kurelic, an ex-marine, has worked for Chicago police 22 years. He loved to fish and to lend a hand.
“He was the kind of person who would help anybody at any time, and often did,” said his brother-in-law, Ken Sterling.
Hehl is survived by her husband, Robert, a Chicago police officer; a son, Brendon, 3; and a stepson, Michael, 25.
Kurelic is survived by his wife, Cynthia; a daughter, Kriston, 11; and a son, George, 9.