By Shira Moolten
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded that a fire likely caused by an engine overheating led to the 2023 Broward Sheriff’s Office helicopter crash in Pompano Beach that killed a BSO Fire Rescue captain and a woman sleeping in an apartment below. The exact cause of the overheating remains unknown.
The agency released its final report Thursday, over two years after the fiery helicopter fell out of the sky, killing Battalion Chief Terryson Jackson, 50, and Lurean Wheaton, 65. The report states that an in-flight fire outside of the engine firewalls caused the crash.
The helicopter had just taken off on its way to transport the victim of a car accident on Aug. 28, 2023. About a minute into the flight, the electronic engine control unit reported a failure of the engine control system. The failure should have led to a cockpit warning, the report said, but the pilot, Daron Roche, did not recall seeing any caution or warning. The reason for the failure “could not be determined,” the report said.
About 30 seconds later, Roche heard a loud “bang” from the back of the helicopter, the report says, and noticed the temperature rising on the left engine. He set the throttle for that engine to idle in order to reduce the fuel flowing to it, declared an emergency to air traffic control, and turned around to head back to the airport. Unbeknownst to Roche, setting the throttle to idle for that engine did nothing to stop the flow of fuel due to the prior failure of the control system.
Meanwhile, a fire had begun outside of the left engine compartment. Because the fire was outside of the engine compartment, Roche “had no caution and warning indicators of an inflight fire that may have forced a land immediately action,” the report states, “therefore, his decision to return to the airport was reasonable, rather than risk an off-airport emergency landing to a confined area with one engine inoperative.”
Around the same time, Roche noticed that the engine fire button was illuminated, according to the report. He said he pressed the button to turn on the fire suppression system, but the temperature continued to rise.
NTSB investigators said in the final report that it was unlikely Roche had pressed the fire button, as it did not show signs of having been pressed. Because the fire was outside of the engine compartment, however, the suppression system would not have extinguished the fire, the report says, though it would have closed the “fuel shutoff valve.”
About a minute and a half after the first “bang,” Roche heard a second bang and lost control of the helicopter. The tail boom separated from the rest of the helicopter and it spun as it plummeted into the apartment building southwest of the Pompano airport . Jackson was trapped and could not escape, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony told reporters at the time. Roche and BSO paramedic Mikael “Mike” Chauguaceda survived.
Witness video showed the fire near the left engine exhaust and air conditioner condenser fans. The NTSB concluded that a fire outside of the engine compartment had caused the crash. The fire was likely caused by the engine overheating, but investigators could not determine exactly why.
“The only plausible explanations the investigation could determine for only the No. 1 engine to overheat were foreign object debris, blockage of the No. 1 engine air inlet, or hot gas or combustible fluid ingestion,” the report states. “Because the wreckage was
subjected to a postimpact fire, the source of the overtemperature could not be determined.”
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