Country music star Troy Gentry was killed last year when the helicopter he was flying in crashed, and now federal investigators have ruled it was due to pilot error.
The 50-year-old country singer — who was part of the popular country duo Montgomery Gentry — headed out for the recreational ride ahead of a scheduled concert in Medford, New Jersey, in September of 2017. Shortly after takeoff, the pilot, James Evan Robinson, reported that he couldn’t control the engine, according to Fox News Tuesday. (RELATED: Why, 2017?! Celebrities We Have Lost This Year [SLIDESHOW])
Montgomery Gentry at The Grand Ole Opry on October 25, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo: Getty Images)
The National Transportation Board of Safety report stated that air controllers on the ground advised Robinson to attempt a shallow run-on landing. Instead, the pilot told the experts that he was going to cut the engine and attempt to glide to the ground, a maneuver he claimed to have done before.
The federal investigators report said the air controllers made it clear if he was going to do so he must wait until he was over the runway before he turned off the engine and attempted the emergency landing. However, Robinson ended up cutting the engine a quarter-to a half-mile out and ended up crashing the chopper in the woods nearby the Flying W Airport.
The NTSB report also concluded that before the flight, the maintenance crew’s failure to “rig the throttle control assembly” contributed to the crash.