A pilot and passenger are dead after a helicopter crashed into the Chesapeake Bay Saturday.
The pilot was identified as Charles Knight, 38, of Mount Airy, Maryland; the passenger was Matt Clark, 36, of Pasadena, Maryland, Maryland Department of Natural Resources confirmed. They were located around 8 p.m.
Dispatchers received reports of a helicopter crashing into the water around Bloody Point, which is on the southern end of Kent Island just before 12:30 p.m., according to Scott Wheatley, with Queen Anne’s County EMS.
A spokesperson for the Coast Guard told WTOP that they received a report of a two-seat helicopter with two men aboard that went down. The Coast Guard deployed several rescue boats to search the area.
A “debris field” was located confirming a crash, Wheatley said.
Multiple agencies and county rescue programs assisted in the rescue efforts, including Maryland State Police, Anne Arundel County Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Anne Arundel County Fire Department deployed a dive team to help with the search.
We are assisting Queen Anne County authorities with this incident with several boats and a dive team. Media staging area being established at the United Communities VFD on Romancoke Road. https://t.co/S9dt0Lbxt6
— Anne Arundel Fire (@AACoFD) May 4, 2019
The Associated Press reported that the helicopter took off from Tipton Airport near Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County and that it was rented to a private pilot Saturday morning by Monumental Helicopters, which operates helicopter tours out of the airport.
Below is a map of the area where the crash happened.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
