Helicopter pilot in fatal crash missed helipad

CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board says the pilot in a helicopter crash that killed two men at a California airport missed the portable helipad he was trying to land on.

Pilot Bruce Allen Erickson was the owner and chief executive officer of American Bank of Montana with branches in Whitefish as well as Bozeman, Big Timber, Big Sky and Livingston.

The entire sequence of events leading up to the Nov. 18 crash, including at least four landing attempts on the helipad, were caught on airport security cameras and several witnesses’ cellphone cameras.

The crash killed Erickson of Rancho Santa Fe and 60-year-old Wayne Frank Lewis of Cardiff-by-the-Sea.

The federal report shows that Erickson had piloted the Airbus AS350 helicopter several times since September, but always with a professional pilot present.

According to the medical examiner’s office, Erickson was practicing landings when the helicopter’s tail struck the ground and it spun out of control along a runway. Video of the scene showed the aircraft spinning wildly on the ground.

According to the American Bank website, Erickson was a licensed pilot with 25,000 hours of flight time. He was licensed on single-engine, twin-engine, helicopter and several jet aircraft.

Erickson first opened an American Bank branch in Whitefish in 1995 at the Mountain Mall. The bank moved in 2003 to its current location at the corner of Baker Avenue and Second Street.

Erickson owned a home on Whitefish Lake.

He is survived by two children, Tyler Erickson and Taylor Wortman of Bozeman, who both are officers with the bank. His wife, Carolyn, died in 2006.