Helicopter makes emergency landing at Portland school
PORTLAND, Ore. – A helicopter made an emergency landing on the baseball field at a Portland middle school on Thursday morning.
At approximately 10 a.m., the helicopter landed at Robert Gray Middle School in Southwest Portland, according to school district spokesman Matt Shelby.
Shelby said all the students were inside at the time and nobody was injured. Nobody in the helicopter was injured, police said.
Shelby said the school continued operating as normal. An email went out to parents after the landing to explain what happened.
Police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said the helicopter was a training helicopter from Hillsboro Aviation. The pilot and co-pilot decided to land after noticing a engine warning light.
Larry Lake is a parent of a student at the school and a pilot himself.
"I know it's very frightening," he said. "I'm a pilot and I had an engine failure one time, so I know what's going through his mind when he did that. It's just absolutely frightening."
Police told KATU News the fire department was not called because there were no leaks coming from the aircraft and no one was hurt.
A flatbed truck showed up around noon to pick up the helicopter. The Federal Aviation Administration will also conduct an investigation.
Portland police Sgt. Greg Pashley said this was the same field that a plane landed in two years ago. In that case, a small Cessna ran out of fuel and the pilot was forced to set the plan down in the field.
What the heck are they training near a school? Go somewhere else for crying out loud.Â
 @brlunk Maybe we should put roads somewhere else instead of by a school as well... derp
Thats one of the most crashed helicopters made, sometimes they even crash before takeoff.
Second time for an emergency aircraft landing in this field? That's where they ought to put the airport!
I am surprised none of the kids called "finders keepers". Glad everyone was safe.
"Shelby said the school is operating as normal and parents donât need to do anything special at this point."
Why the heck would the parents need to do anythings special, its not like it exploded and it rammed the school or something? Cmon all of these safety and caution warnings are a little overboard when its lands SAFELY!
 @portlandborn83 Gotta keep the paranoia alive.
Those R22 helicopters are pretty good for what they do. Cheap to buy, cheap to run and very reliable.
 @RalphCramden Yep, Robinson made a neat little heli!
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 @negativerepÂ
They are ugly, can't haul much, is slow and has limited range but it is priced within range of many folks who couldn't otherwise afford a helicopter.
That would be a great place to land a small aircraft in an emergency as long as you came in from the south and it wasn't recess.
First a plane, Now a chopper lol, what is it raining aircraft?, well not yet, I wonder if the economy has something to do with Keeping up the maintenance on these Air craft. I am glad no injuries on both accounts. but seriously 2 in-the same day? that is rare.
Did you even read the article? Nowhere in the article did it say there were to aircraft landing there in the same day..... Two years apart is a far cry from raining aircraft....
@lee986321Â Did you even read the article? The article said the plane landed there two years ago...... yep literally raining aircraft....
@lee986321 Yep, I remember that plane too, same school I think.....wasn't that last year? There must be a big magnet buried in the ground at that school somewhere---time to do some sleuthing????
@lee986321 not when Hillsboro Aviation is involved. China's next generation of attack helicopter pilots fly the crap out of HAI's training aircraft.
 @Playanekes  @lee986321 meh send up a bunch of drones and given a heap of Flac..Flac guns still got to be good for something.
 @Playanekes ah hell an one got a bunch of pigeons? Just send Up so Love up in the air with a bunch of doves..See who wins..well maybe on the first wave..Not sure if we can get enough birds to herd em off.
YUP lights and gauges are a Pilots life blood with the Aircraft..
Cool! No one was hurt and the kids got a little excitement.
 @Lips That's exactly what I was thinking - what a HOOT for those kiddos!
At least the pilot was able to make a safe landing.