A joyous wedding celebration turned into an unimaginable tragedy when a groom and his three young nieces were killed in a private helicopter crash in the United States just hours before the ceremony.
The Fatal Flight and Crash Details
David McCarty, 59, an experienced pilot from Oregon, was flying family members through Telegraph Canyon near Superior, Arizona. The flight was part of a celebratory family weekend ahead of his marriage to fiancée Joelleen Linstrom. Tragically, at around 11 am, the MD 369FF helicopter collided with a recreational slackline strung across the mountains.
A witness reported seeing the rotor blades shear off upon impact, sending the aircraft plummeting to the canyon floor below. The remote and rugged terrain forced search-and-rescue crews to hike to the crash site. Deputies from the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office reached the mangled wreckage around 5 p.m., and all four victims were pronounced dead later that evening.
The Victims and a Family Shattered
The victims were identified as pilot David McCarty, his nieces Rachel McCarty, 23, and Faith McCarty, 21, and their cousin Katelyn Heideman, 22. Rachel and Faith were sisters, and Katelyn was also McCarty's niece. Relatives described the three young women as close-knit and deeply connected to their small Oregon communities, with bright futures ahead.
The loss has devastated the family. "The families lost 50% of their children on the wedding day, which was supposed to be a celebration," a family member said. "It's extremely tough." Mary Jane Heideman, Katelyn's mother, expressed overwhelming grief, stating, "They were all so loved. The girls had such bright futures. It's just hard to fathom this."
An Experienced Pilot's Final Journey
David McCarty was no novice to the skies. He was the founder of Columbia Basin Helicopters, a business he started in the mid- to late 1990s specializing in power-line construction, logging, firefighting, and aircraft recovery. Relatives confirmed to reporters that he was an experienced pilot who had flown through the same canyon many times before without incident.
This tragic helicopter crash underscores the unpredictable nature of aviation, even for seasoned professionals. The investigation into the precise circumstances continues, but the collision with the slackline—a line used for balance sports—has been cited as the catastrophic event that led to the wedding day tragedy.
