A helicopter being used to film a test run of an experimental car on Pikes Peak crashed today near the mountain’s summit, injuring the helicopter pilot and the film crew.
Steve Sperry, spokesman for El Paso County Search and Rescue, said the helicopter crashed about 7:30 a.m. at an elevation of 13,800 feet near Mile Marker 19.
Sperry said the crash occurred where the Pikes Peak Cog Railroad and the Pikes Peak highway are within yards of each other.
Terri Reishus, a spokeswoman for Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, said that the pilot, Jim Dirker, and the three other occupants of the plane were released from the hospital this afternoon.
The helicopter is a Eurocopter AS355F1 built in 1982 by the French aerospace firm Aerospatiale, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The helicopter is registered to JBD Enterprises in Eugene, Ore.
Mike Fergus, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said that both the FAA and NTSB will investigate the incident.
Jeremiah Gallagher, a Pikes Peak ranger, said those aboard the helicopter were members of a film crew that were going to film an Audi car test – a joint project of Audi, Stanford University and the Electronic Research Laboratory in Palo Alto.
Earlier this week, Stanford University said that an Audi coupe, known as Shelley, was being tested on the mountain.
Audi spokesman Brad Stertz said that testing of Shelley had been going on for almost two weeks on Pikes Peak, but today’s testing, which started about 6 a.m., was the first time that a helicopter had followed the car up the mountain.
Stertz said that the helicopter was trailing the experimental car and was flying near the summit when it went down.
“It was filming it, trailing it as it went up,” said Stertz. “It was an unfortunate thing. I don’t know what went wrong.”
Stertz said said all research activities on Pikes Peak have been suspended and the project will continue at a later date. Stertz said there was a contingent of about 15 scientists and engineers along the route, including some in a car in front of “Shelley.”
According to Stanford’s Center for Automotive Research, “Shelley” is a self-driving car which was to be tested on the switchbacks of the high mountain road.
Stanford University spokesman Dan Stober said that Shelley was to drive up Pikes Peak this morning and the film crew, hired by VW/Audi, was to film the event.
The driverless car combines artificial intelligence and numerous sensors that researchers hope will eventually be used to make driving safer, said Stober.
Stober said that although Stanford had a large contingent on the mountain, none were on the helicopter and none were injured. The car was not involved in the incident.
Audi said the goal of the project involves ascending Pikes Peak automatically without a driver behind the wheel “to demonstrate the capabilities of advanced driver assistance systems and GPS.”
John Morgan, president of the Green Mountain Falls Fire Department, said his department sent two engines and the Cascade Fire Department sent two engines. Morgan said three ambulances responded as well as a Flight for Life helicopter.
Teresa Murphy, spokeswoman for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, said the sheriff’s HAZMAT crew responded to the crash and has contained fuel leakage from the helicopter.
Sperry said the helicopter that crashed flew out of Centennial Airport.
Dirker, the pilot, is the president of Englewood-based AirCam National Helicopter Services. According to the AirCam website, Dirker has flown helicopters for more than 35 years and has more than 27,000 hours of flight time, primarily in high altitude environments.
The website says that Dirker, 64, is recognized as an expert in high altitude and mountain flying.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
