TUSCALOOSA - University of Alabama professor Amnon Katz was killed
Tuesday morning shortly after an experimental helicopter he was flying
crashed into a chain-link fence at the Tuscaloosa Municipal Airport.
There were no other people in the one-seat helicopter
Katz and his students built over the course of three semesters as an
ongoing engineering project.
Two agencies, the Federal Aviation Administration and
the National Transportation Safety Board, are investigating the 9 a.m.
fatality.
Emil Cirone, an inspector with the FAA in Birmingham,
said his agency's priorities included securing the wreckage and
interviewing witnesses.
"Until then we don't have any idea what the cause
is," said Cirone. He will be working with the local medical
examiner's office and police officers assisting in the investigation.
The helicopter had taken off just minutes before it lost
power, said Chuck Hendrickson, an aircraft mechanic at Bama Air, who
witnessed the crash. Hendrickson said the helicopter was about 250 feet
in the air when it suddenly lost power.
"That's what drew my attention," he said.
"The engine kind of sounds like a Weedeater, and he had been
buzzing around here for a couple weeks, so we had gotten used to hearing
it. I could tell the power had been cut back dramatically."
Hendrickson said the craft appeared to fall straight
down, crashing into a 6-foot fence on the western side of the airport
near the control tower. He said the bowed blades were unable to turn
enough to straighten out and give Katz the lift he needed.
"I thought he was doing an emergency landing at
first, but he was going at the wrong angle," Hendrickson said.
"He just fell flat. I guess he didn't even have time to do an
emergency landing."
Tuscaloosa Air Crash firefighters, a city rescue squad
stationed at the airport, doused the fiery wreckage using a special
foam. Northport and Tuscaloosa firefighters also responded.
There have been 15 crashes over the past three years
nationwide involving the Mini 500 helicopter model, including Tuesday's
crash. Five of those crashes resulted in fatalities, according to
National Transportation Safety Board records.
While Tuesday's crash remains under investigation,
federal officials said they have determined causes for the four other
fatal crashes of the Mini 500 model. Two were due to engine problems,
one was attributed to pilot error and one occurred because of improper
maintenance of the aircraft's rotor.
Katz, 65, left the private sector in 1991 to teach at UA,
where his specialties were flight simulations, applied aerodynamics,
conceptual design and guidance and control.
World-renowned in his field, Katz raised the level of
expertise of the engineering college faculty and leaves a void that will
be difficult to fill, said UA College of Engineering Dean Tim Green.
Whether inside a classroom or in a hangar using the
helicopter as a teaching tool, Katz challenged his students, Green said.
"He did not believe in just giving them information
and letting them recited it back," Green said. "He wanted them
to do their own investigative work on their own to figure out how things
worked."
Green spent Tuesday morning with Katz's family.
Survivors include his wife Ora, a Northport resident, a son in St. Louis
and a daughter working in Taiwan.
Approved for flight by the FAA in April, the helicopter
allowed Katz and his students to conduct research. In an interview with
a campus research magazine, Katz said the helicopter gave his students a
way to validate the simulations performed in labs. Before the helicopter
was assembled earlier this year, engineering students did not have
access to a helicopter.
Katz, a certified pilot, said in an interview with
"Capstone Engineer" magazine that building a one-man
helicopter was based on finances and safety.
"A one-man helicopter is more affordable and it
segregates the risk and liabilities of students flying it from the
unique experience of building it," Katz said.
"Since I am the only one with a license and only
one person can be it at a time, there were no questions about who would
fly it."
Katz began his career as a physics professor at Weizmann
Institute of Science in Israel.
His family escaped Nazi authorities in Poland when he
was four years old and settled in the Middle East. He spent his
childhood and early adult years in Israel attending school at Hebrew
University and Weizmann Institute.
On leave from Weizmann, he taught and conducted research
at Stanford, Harvard, Argonne National Lab in Illinois and the
University of Washington.
In 1971, Katz converted to aerospace engineering,
studying at the University of Michigan. His career included working for
an aerospace firm and for the McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co.
Administrators said arrangements would be made for
someone to take over Katz's classes. Grief counselors will also be
available to assist students and faculty.
Tuesday's crash was the second aircraft accident this
year at the Tuscaloosa Municipal Airport, according to federal safety
records. The first occurred on March 20 when a commercial aircraft that
had stopped to refuel in Tuscaloosa lost engine power shortly after
take-off. The pilot and the single passenger were not injured.
Tuesday's crash is the first fatality in at least 15 to
20 years, said Tuscaloosa airport officials.
