Authorities have identified one of the pilots involved in the Sunday
night collision over the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in which an airplane
clipped a helicopter near Rio Vista.
Ronald Albert Gawer, 49, of Brentwood, was at the controls of the
Beechcraft Bonanza airplane that had made contact with a Robinson R22
helicopter shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday, according to lead operations
specialist Mark Grosenheider of the Byron Airport in Contra Costa County.
Gawer crash-landed his aircraft short of the runway at Byron,
Grosenheider said. He had a passenger with him, and both were shaken up in
the crash, but neither was hurt seriously, according to Grosenheider.
No identification has been available on the pilot of the damaged helicopter
that landed on Sherman Island near Highway 160, according to the Sacramento
Sheriff's Department. Grosenheider said the helicopter had taken off out of
the municipal airport in Hayward. The pilot, a 29-year-old woman, also
sustained minor injuries, sheriff's spokesman Jason Ramos said Sunday.
The collision is now under investigation by the National Transportation
Safety Board.
Sacramento sheriff's officials said the crash apparently took place over
Antioch.
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