Ladd Sanger Featured in NJ.com Article: Helicopter Hovered for 10 Minutes Before Crash That Killed Troy Gentry

In the NJ.com article on the tragic helicopter crash that killed country singer Troy Gentry, Dallas Managing Partner Ladd Sanger provided insight on new evidence that emerged after the preliminary the National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the incident and what might have gone wrong.

The investigation determined that the helicopter crashed after experiencing a mechanical failure and, according to 911 calls, the pilot hovered for 10 minutes while attempting to do an emergency landing.

Sanger pointed out that the report indicated the helicopter attempted to land on the runway, but ended up in a field area nearby. “If an autorotation was properly initiated over the runway, it’s unlikely the helicopter would have crashed that far away,” Sanger said.

As for hovering and waiting, there are both pros and cons to making this decision, but continued hovering could have caused further damage to the engine, depending on what type of mechanical issue had occurred.

“If it was a transmission issue, the longer that you let that run, the worse things are going to be,” Sanger explained. “But it’s unclear without knowing what the underlying mechanical issue is. It’s easy to sit here after the fact and second-guess anybody.”

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