Two helicopters collide in midair near McMinnville, Oregon, killing a flight instructor, a pilot and a British student pilot

The two aircraft came down in a private farm field southeast of McMinnville, about 40 miles southwest of Portland, on Thursday afternoon. The Yamhill County Sheriff's Office said the collision was reported at about 2:10 p.m. near Highway 233 and Cruickshank Road. One helicopter, a red Robinson R22 from 1995, was left crumpled in pieces. The other, a green Airbus AS350, lay upside down. A stretch of Highway 233 was closed while crews worked.

All three people aboard were dead when responders reached them. The Robinson carried two people. One was Maddie Aasbo, 22, a flight instructor from Texas. The other was a student pilot from the United Kingdom. Sheriff Sam Elliott said authorities are working with the British consulate and the FBI to notify the student's family, and the name has not been released. The Airbus carried one person, its pilot, Tyler Delane Sturdevant, 38, of Newberg, Oregon.

The two flights were doing different work. The Robinson was on an instructional flight, and one of the helicopters was operated by Jerry Trimble Helicopters, a flight school and rental service based at the McMinnville airport. The Airbus was on a maintenance flight. The Federal Aviation Administration said the NTSB will lead the investigation, and federal investigators reached the scene on Thursday night. The NTSB said the wreckage will be documented and moved to a secure site for examination.

No cause has been announced, and officials have not said whether weather, traffic or a mechanical problem played any part. The airport itself stayed open. Midair collisions between small aircraft are rare, and training flights around small airports put student pilots and instructors in the same airspace as other traffic following visual rules, which is the area the federal investigation will now work through.