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Published on the KOB.com - July 28, 2009
A New Mexico State Police helicopter pilot who died in a crash after picking up a stranded hiker in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in June was awarded the department's Medal of Valor on Tuesday.
Sergeant Andy Tingwall was recognized for jumping into an arroyo last August to save a drowning man. His widow, Leighann Tingwall, and his daughter accepted the award.
Leighann Tingwall said that Sergeant Tingwall would have been uncomfortable with the ceremony because he didn't like recognition. She said, however, she was glad for the award because "he was a hero."
Two other state policemen were also awarded the Medal of Valor: Officer Craig Vandiver and Officer James Rempe.
Tingwall and Officer Wesley Cox rescued University of New Mexico graduate student Megumi Yamamoto, who had become stranded near Santa Fe Baldy.
As the helicopter attempted to lift off, though, it became engulfed in clouds. The tail rudder apparently struck a tree or the ground and the chopper went down, rolling over 800 feet down a steep ravine.
Yamamoto and Tingwall were killed. Cox managed to walk out of the wreck area, despite a broken leg, and was spotted by rescuers.
Leighann Tingwall spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday.
"I'm very proud, and I know Andy is looking down at her and he's proud also," she said.
Leighann Tingwall was working as a dispatcher the night her husband was killed. She was last to speak with him before the helicopter he piloted went down.
Leighann Tingwall says she plans to stay working for state police. It is possible Tingwall could be recommended for the same honor next year for his effort during last month's deadly rescue operation.
Published on the Santa Fe New Mexican - June 15, 2009
Ten-year-old Alexis Tingwall, with her mother's dark hair and her father's courage, stood at a podium almost her height and looked out through her glasses at rows of uniformed law-enforcement officers Monday morning.
They were packed, along with hundreds of family and friends, into Hangar G at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport, where the state police aircraft her father flew are housed. The people were there, more than 1,500 of them, to remember her dad, state police Sgt. Andrew Francis "Andy" Tingwall. Her mother, Leighann, and her sister Jenna, 6, sat in the front row.
Her father once held her hand as they rode a roller coaster, Alexis said. She was terrified. He let out a big yell, the kind many gathered in the hangar remembered.
His yelling made her laugh. "Now I love roller coasters," she told the gathered pilots, sheriffs' deputies, city police, state police from several states, and search and rescue volunteers.
Alexis knew her father's job was saving people, she told them. She prayed and prayed he would come back safely after his helicopter crashed in the mountains earlier this week. She knew he died trying to rescue a lost hiker.
"I just wish I could ride one more roller coaster with him," she said.
A born leader with a dream to fly Tingwall, "Ting" to some friends, came from a family of law enforcement officers. His father, Hank Tingwall, who died last year, was retired from the New York City Police Department. A couple of uncles were New York police officers as well.
"I don't know if Andy wanted to be a policeman," said his brother, Steven Tingwall. "I know he wanted to be a pilot, ever since he was 3."
The family moved to Big Sky, Mont., when the future pilot was still a boy. The four brothers grew up hiking, camping, fly fishing, floating down rivers, and gazing at stars. He learned to "push the envelope on dirt bikes" from his big brother Steve, said another brother, Doug Tingwall. "Andy loved adventure in all its guises," he said.
Andy Tingwall graduated from the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, earning the class vote for "Most Hard Core." He joined the U.S. Marines and served with Delta Company, 4th Reconnaissance Battalion for three years. In 1995, he joined the New Mexico State Police.
His fellow officers describe him as smart, honest, dependable, with a big, bellowing laugh, an ever-present smile and a hug for anyone who was down.
He was the kind of guy who would tell even a governor where to sit,said Gov. Bill Richardson, speaking at the memorial. Tingwall flew Richardson often. "He loved his helicopter, he loved the sky," Richardson said. "He loved saving people."
In his 14 years with state police, Tingwall served with the tactical team as a public-information officer and trained more than 300 recruits to be law-enforcement officers. He was tough on them, and they loved him, said Terrie Montoya, who worked with Tingwall. And he finally fulfilled his dream of learning to fly. His skills in the air earned him the spot as chief pilot for New Mexico State Police, although he was the youngest among the pilots. He had more than 1,300 hours of flight time under his belt.
Last year, he used his helicopter to rescue lost Boy Scouts and also saved an Albuquerque man stranded in a flooded arroyo. For that rescue, he earned Officer of the Year in March from the New Mexico Sheriffs and Police Association. He was to be awarded the state police Medal of Valor this Friday for the same incident.
On June 9, the night before his 37th birthday, Tingwall took 606,the high-altitude designed Agusta helicopter, up for the last time,looking for a stranger who needed help.
Last words with a loved one
Megumi Yamamoto, 26, was a new graduate student in the Physics Department at The University of New Mexico. She became separated from her boyfriend while hiking high in the Sangre de Cristos on June 9 and called for help on her cell phone.
Tingwall and his spotter, Officer Wesley Cox, landed the helicopter near where they expected to pick her up in the mountainous terrain and went looking for her, according to State Police Chief Faron Segotta. Tingwall carried the exhausted hiker on his back to the helicopter in the gathering dark. They strapped in and took off as a storm rolled in.
Investigators think Tingwall did his best with no visibility through the clouds to bring the helicopter above the peaks near Santa Fe Baldy, but may have clipped the tail rotor on a tree. He radioed in to tell dispatchers what happened. His wife of 11 years, dispatcher Leighann Tingwall, answered. "Are you 10-4?," she asked, the code for OK. "Not really," he said.
"It is fitting that one of the last voices he would hear is that of the love of his life," said Debbie Kuidis, retired chaplain from the Albuquerque Police Department during the memorial.
The decision to rescue a lost hiker
Segotta said Tingwall tried to control the crash into a ravine at about 12,300 feet. The last thing Tingwall said as the helicopter went down was "Hang on, boys." Yamamoto and Tingwall were thrown from the craft as it rolled down hundreds of feet. Cox remained strapped in.
When it came to a rest and he recovered consciousness, Cox crawled out with a crushed leg and hurt back. He found Yamamoto dead and called out to Tingwall, who answered him from somewhere up the slope, in the dark. Cox spent the night in the helicopter, unable to reach Tingwall because of injuries, while searchers trained in high-mountain rescue worked to reach the crash site through the night. The next day, when Cox called out to Tingwall, there was no answer. Cox limped out on his smashed leg and was found by rescuers midday June 10.
Yamamoto's mother and aunt, who had come from Japan, attended the Tingwall memorial. A representative from the Japanese consulate presented Tingwall's family with a wreath and expressed the Yamamoto family's gratitude to those who tried to rescue Megumi, bowing deeply to the Tingwalls after he spoke.
The Yamamoto family held a memorial for Megumi in Albuquerque on Monday afternoon before flying her ashes back to Japan. Megumi Yamamoto's birthday would have been today, June 16.
Cox attended Tingwall's memorial in a wheelchair. It is the second time the young officer has had to deal with a crushed leg — and now,said Kuidis, a crushed spirit.
In 2004, Cox was hit by a car on La Bajada during an Interstate 25 traffic stop, and it shattered his right leg. It took him two years to recover from the injury, for which he was awarded a Purple Heart by state police. The same leg was crushed again in the helicopter crash.
Tingwall's decision to set down the helicopter high on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Santa Fe Baldy as a storm rolled in wasn't just about the lost hiker. "He asked himself, what if that was his wife, his niece, his daughter? If she perished in the cold that night, he would never have forgiven himself," Doug Tingwall said. "If you understand this, in your heart you'll understand the decision he made."
Farewell to a fallen pilot
Kuidis read a letter from Tingwall to his family, telling them how much he loved them. "Think of me when you see a plane blow by," he wrote.
After friends and family spoke, the haunting melody of "Taps" sounded outside the hangar. Twenty-one shots from rifles shook the air. Two U.S. Marine Corpsmen walked slowly between the long rows of law enforcement officers lined up inside until they stood near the Tingwall family. An Albuquerque police officer dressed in a kilt played "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes.
Three helicopters outside made ready for a flyover to honor the fallen pilot.
A video flickered on the large screen at the head of the hangar near the urn with Tingwall's ashes. "Do you understand?! Doesn't sound like you understand," booms a big voice to some scared-looking recruits. His former recruits and fellow officers in the hangar chuckle. They know that voice. It's Ting.
"The purpose of the training is to teach them to never quit," Tingwall says on the video. "To keep going when they feel there's nothing left."
At the end of the training, he quotes to the new recruits some favorite lines from Shakespeare's Henry V. "This is the way I feel about you guys, for man and woman alike. 'He, who hath shed blood with me today, shall be my brother,' " he tells them. "I love you guys."
Dressed in his state police uniform at the end of the video, Tingwall gives a growling "oohraw" to the camera.
Then he smiles, turns and walks away.
Published on the KOAT News - June 15, 2009
Tingwall History Of Heroism Revisited During Service
SANTA FE, N.M. -- Crowds packed memorial services Monday for the pair who died in the tragic accident last week.
They honored Sgt. Andrew Tingwall's heroic service to New Mexico and Megumi Yama-Moto's brief, but powerful impact on the University of New Mexico community.
A short list of close friends and family spoke at the service.
A procession of police from all over New Mexico wound through the streets of Santa Fe to the aircraft hangar where Tingwall launched countless rescue missions, during his long career.
"I can't think of anyone who was a better police officer that I know of," said Ken Daniels.
The tributes poured in to Tingwall as officer after officer slowly drove under a giant American flag leading his casket to hangar G where 2,000 people came to honor his memory.
"Mountain of a man, but a good kind hearted individual," said New Mexico State Police Chief Faron Segotta.
Tingwall took off from this hangar last week for a rescue mission in the mountains of Santa Fe.
He and Officer Wesley Cox spotted missing hiker Megumi Yamamoto and pulled her to safety only to crash minutes later in rough weather.
"It wasn't so much shock. It was horror," said Jim Burleson, with N.M. Sheriff's & Police Association.
"It was nothing that I've ever experienced before in my life," said Segotta.
Cox survived the crash with a crushed leg and broken back. He came to Monday memorial in a wheelchair straight from the hospital.
Inside the service there were few dry eyes as Tingwall's 10-year-old daughter spoke of how she loved her father saying, "He may have touched you if he saved you, may have touched your heart. He touched my heart."
Gov. Bill Richardson, who Tingwall often flew, said, "I'm going to call him a hero, but I know if Andy were here he would simply say, 'That's my job.'"
"We honored him as officer of the year this march, for his heroism," Burleson said.
Tingwall meant so much to the people who attended the service.
"I loved the guy, he was an incredible person, generous, kind, words can't describe," said Tingwall's friend Ken Daniels.
"Andy was Andy. He's a special man and we're going to miss him," said Segotta.
His friends and loved one said they would do everything they can to make sure his memory lives on.
Published on the KOB.com - June 15, 2009
State Police Sergeant Andy Tingwall is being honored for his service to New Mexico after the tragic helicopter crash that took his life.
Tingwall was piloting the state police helicopter that crashed on Santa Fe Baldy Tuesday after rescuing a stranded hiker.
Tingwall and the hiker, Megumi Yamamoto, were killed in the accident.
Yamamoto's family arrived at the Sunport Saturday after a long and emotional journey from Japan. They say they are considering attending the memorial.
The service got underway at Santa Fe Municipal Airport at 10 a.m. Monday. Among the speakers is Governor Bill Richardson, who knew Tingwall personally.
When the governor heard about Tingwall's death, he called the sergeant a friend who had flown him in the past. The sergeant's brother, Steven Tingwall, is currently on Richardson's security detail.
Tingwall's body was driven back to Santa Fe from Albuquerque after an autopsy Friday morning. The large procession that followed was a preview of the display of honor expected at Monday's ceremonies.
Northbound Interstate 25 was briefly shut down between La Cienega and New Mexico 599 to allow a state police motorcade to travel by. The motorcade will be in honor of Sgt. Tingwall.
Published on the KRQE News - June 12, 2009
ALBUQUERQUE- A procession of patrol cars and motorcycles stretched for nearly a mile as dozens of officers from several law enforcement departments escorted the body of State Police Sgt. Andy Tingwall back to Santa Fe Friday.
Tingwall died after a helicopter crash on Tuesday.
The mood was written on the faces of those in the motorcade. Some like Lt. Michael Quinones are still in disbelief.
“I don't think anybody wanted to believe it until we knew for sure,” Quinones said.
Reality finally sank in for many who were sitting in line for the procession.
The procession stretched for nearly a mile. Lieutenants, sergeants and patrolmen from several departments lined up to ride alongside Tingwall, to make sure their fallen badge brother made back to Santa Fe.
“It's sad, it's sad for everyone, but it's a respectful thing that we like to do,” Quinones said.
The veteran officer died after attempting a rescue in the mountains near Santa Fe Tuesday night.
After picking up a lost hiker, Megumi Yamamoto, the helicopter he was piloting struck something. The chopper then rolled down the mountain.
Tingwall and Yamamoto were ejected. Officer Wesley Cox, the spotter for the mission, was the only survivor. Cox remained inside the chopper.
Thursday rescuers found the bodies of Tingwall and Yamamato. New Mexico’s Chief of Police made the sobering announcement.
“When we received that information this morning that there were no survivors it was a low point again for all of us,” Police Chief Faron Segotta said.
Officers will wear a black sash across their badges until Tingwall is buried. A member of the state police honor guard will be near Tingwall's body around the clock until the burial.
Medical investigators said autopsy results for Tingwall are expected to be released on Monday.
Published on the KOB.com - June 12, 2009
Andy Tingwall and Megumi YamamotoOfficers and friends of Sgt. Andrew Tingwall say when it came to flying, he was a natural.
They say he had the instincts all great pilots have, but Tuesday night at 13,000 feet, Mother Nature unleashed a set of conditions even the best pilots in the world would have trouble handling.
After Tingwall and spotter Wesley Cox picked up lost hiker Megumi Yamamoto, he took off—and it’s believed that’s when a sudden burst of high winds, mixed with snow, moved in giving Tingwall zero visibility.
State police say when the tail rotor clipped a tree, Tingwall gained some altitude, but clipped another tree at the top of a ravine.
Even as he went down, Tingwall was able to make a controlled crash, but when the helicopter tipped and rolled 800 feet down the rocky ravine, there was nothing he could do.
Tingwall and Yamamoto were both ejected. Cox, who remained in the cabin of the chopper, was the sole survivor.
John Denko, a former instructor pilot for state police and flew often with Tingwall, said on Thursday, "Working with him as an individual, and as another pilot, I couldn't ask for a better young guy, I could see a lot of future in him in state police."
Tingwall leaves behind a wife and two children, ages ten and six, and a legacy that his fellow officers will never forget.
State Police Chief Faron Segotta said, "Andy was not for fanfare and all of this, obviously, he just wanted to do his job and he was committed to doing that."
"I told somebody yesterday when you met Andy and stood next to him, you stood a little taller with your chest out, the guy was the epitome of what being a state police officer means," State Police Major Pete Casetas said Thursday.
The governor has ordered flags to fly at half staff starting Friday.
State police have set up a memorial fund for Sgt. Tingwall. Donations can be made at any Wells Fargo Bank under the name “Tingwall Memorial Fund.”
University of New Mexico graduate student Megumi Yamamoto would have turned 27-years-old next Tuesday.
She had just started work toward a doctorate degree in quantum physics.
Her facility advisor remembers her as someone who also had passions outside the realm of academia.
"She was exploring and enjoying some of the other aspects of life in New Mexico, and the whole story is incredibly sad, we're in shock here in the department," Professor Ivan Deutsch told Eyewitness News 4.
Yamamoto’s family lives in Tokyo. State police notified them of her death on Thursday.
Published on the KOB.com - June 12, 2009
Sgt. Andy TingwallFlags across New Mexico are being flown at half staff in honor of a state police officer who was killed following a helicopter crash Tuesday night in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
The bodies of Sergeant Andy Tingwall and UNM graduate student Megemi Yamamoto were removed Thursday from rugged terrain near the 12,000-foot high Santa Fe Baldy. The Office of the Medical Investigator is trying to identify the exact causes of death.
Tingwall was piloting the helicopter on a mission to rescue Yamamoto, who had become stranded during a hike, when the crash occurred.
After picking up Yamamoto, clouds suddenly descended on the chopper and its rotor struck two trees.
Tingwall managed to bring the aircraft to a controlled landing, but because of the steep terrain the helicopter rolled repeatedly for approximately 800 feet, ejecting both Tingwall and Yamamoto.
A third person in the aircraft, Officer Wesley Cox, who was working as a spotter, was not ejected. He later walked far enough away from the crash, despite a broken leg, to be spotted by a rescue crew.
Tingwall’s fellow officers describe him as a dedicated, skilled pilot who had been a pilot for five years and with the state police over 13 years.
Tingwall is survived by a wife and two children aged ten and six.
Published in the Fort Worth Star Telegram - June 11, 2009
SANTA FE, N.M. -- The pilot of a state police helicopter and the student hiker he was rescuing were killed when the aircraft crashed on a snowy mountain near Santa Fe, officials said Thursday.
Sgt. Andy Tingwall perished after retrieving lost hiker Megumi Yamamoto when the chopper struck the side of a mountain Tuesday night in rough weather, state Police Chief Faron Segotta said.
Yamamoto, a University of New Mexico physics graduate student from Tokyo, was also confirmed dead earlier Thursday after rescuers reached the bodies, both of which were found about 30 yards from the downed copter's fuselage.
The only other person aboard, state police officer Wesley Cox, sustained serious leg injuries but managed to reach safety Wednesday.
Segotta said he'd flown many times with Tingwall, an experienced pilot who was effusive about his love for the job. Tingwall would sometimes reach over and clasp the chief's arm when the two men flew together.
"He'd say .... 'I've got the best job in the world,'" Segotta recalled.
Gov. Bill Richardson ordered flags flown at half-staff after he received word of the pilot's death.
"Sgt. Tingwall was a true hero, putting his life on the line while valiantly fighting to save somebody else's life," Richardson said in a statement.
Yamamoto, a native of Japan, has been in the United States since 2003, but had been at the university only since January, according to Ivan Deutsch, one of her professors. He described her as a quiet student who was just beginning her graduate work.
"It's a horrific story, so we're all extremely saddened here in the department," he said.
Rescue efforts had been hampered by snow, low clouds and wind Wednesday. But the weather broke Thursday, allowing Black Hawk helicopters to airlift searchers as close as they could to the wreckage to look for Yamamoto and Tingwall.
Just before smashing into the mountain Tuesday night, the sleek police copter, designed for just such high-altitude rescue missions, picked up Yamamoto after she become stranded while hiking.
Cox's right leg was crushed, his back injured. Soon, hypothermia set in. He hunkered down for the night inside the downed chopper with his pilot within earshot. Through the night, Tingwall and Cox alternately called out to each other.
When daybreak came Wednesday, Cox, badly injured and uncertain where Tingwall was, decided he needed to hike out for help, broken bones and all. He walked less than a mile before finding help and was rushed to a hospital with severe hypothermia.
Authorities spent the rest of Wednesday searching the mountains near the crash for signs of the pilot and Yamamoto, who had been camping with a boyfriend, also a student at the university.
Late Wednesday, two crews located the helicopter's fuselage and other debris that had been scattered down the mountainside. The chief said the debris field stretched about 800 feet in steep terrain.
The crash occurred northeast of Baldy peak in the Santa Fe Mountains, at about 12,000 feet, officials said. A crew of 18 people hiked through the night in an effort to reach the lower end of the debris field.
Segotta said information about the crash and details of the frightening night on the mountain came from Cox, 29, who remained hospitalized with a back injury, possibly a fracture, and a "seriously crushed" right leg, according to the chief. He also said Cox has some internal bleeding.
Tingwall, of Santa Fe, had radioed in his last radio transmission Tuesday night that he had hit the mountain.
Segotta said three campers near Lake Stewart saw the helicopter take off and fly around the north side of the mountain, then heard its rotors rev to a high pitch. They then saw a flash of light and heard the crash, he said.
The helicopter may have crashed into the mountainside after the tail rotor hit something and subsequently failed to gain enough altitude to negotiate a safe landing, he said.
Published on the KRQE News - June 11, 2009
SANTA FE - New Mexico State Police Chief Faron Segotta on Thursday confirmed that searchers found the pilot and a hiker dead after the helicopter they were on board crashed near Santa Fe.
The bodies of Sgt. Andy Tingwall and University of New Mexico graduate student Megumi Yamamoto are being brought to the state Office of the Medical Investigator for autopsies, Segotta said during a 2 p.m. Mountain time news conference.
Crews found the helicopter's wreckage on Wednesday. It was spread over about 800 feet of the mountainside on a snowy face of Santa Fe Baldy.
Earlier Wednesday, Officer Wesley Cox, 29, of New Mexico State Police found rescuers and was airlifted to CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where, according to hospital spokesperson Arturo Delgado, he is in the intensive-care unit in serious condition.
He had been acting as the spotter during the mission to find and rescue Yamamoto, who had been separated from her boyfriend while camping near Lake Katherine.
State Police Chief Faron Segotta said Cox had told him the pair had recently picked up Yamamoto and was lifting off when the tail rotor of the helicopter struck something, causing the helicopter to spin. Tingwall was able to regain control, level out and gain some altitude, and then tried to land on a flat spot.
Instead, though, the helicopter came down hard, sending the aircraft rolling about 100 yards downhill and ejecting all three occupants.
Cox had said he suspected Yamamoto didn't survive the wreck, but he and Tingwall were able to continue yelling to each other.
"They would call each other's name--'Andy, Wes, Andy, Wes'--and that's how they communicated," Segotta said. "They didn't exchange any other information as to 'How are you doing? What's hurt?' and things of that nature."
Cox said he and Tingwall could not see each other, and before he hiked out Wednesday morning he called for Tingwall again but did not get an answer.
A storm system was brewing at the time of the crash, but it is not known whether that was a factor. However low clouds, fog and conditions described as blizzard-like limited the air search until Wednesday afternoon and added to the danger of the ground search.
About 5 inches of snow fell overnight adding to the existing snowpack, and temperatures forecast for early Thursday were expected to dip into the high 20s at the crash site.
Rescuers worked in the Pecos Wilderness about 16 miles northeast of Santa Fe. The chopper crashed on the northeastern face of Santa Fe Baldy 400 feet below its 12,622-foot summit.
Six New Mexico State Police officers have died in aircraft crashes during the department's history, one during service in the Army Air Corps during World War II, according to biographies on its Officer Down Memorial site.
Published in the USA Today - June 11, 2009
The chief pilot for the New Mexico State Police and a lost hiker died when a rescue helicopter crashed in stormy weather high on a mountain near Santa Fe late Tuesday, authorities announced today. A second officer was seriously injured.
Sgt. Andy Tingwall, chief pilot and a frequent spokesman for the State Police, died after rescuing Megumi Yamamoto of Tokyo, who was a doctoral student in physics at the University of New Mexico. Both were thrown from the craft when it crashed at 12,000 feet on snowy Santa Fe Baldy about 9:40 p.m., police said.
Yamamoto was killed and Tingwall died later that night, according to fellow officer Wesley Cox. He was injured but called out to Tingwall throughout the night. Despite major leg and back injuries he managed to hike about a mile yesterday morning before a search team found him.
Published on the KOB.com - June 10, 2009
Sergeant Andrew Tingwall, the pilot of the police helicopter that crashed in Santa Fe Tuesday, was named Officer of the Year in March.
He was honored for his bravery in an August 2008 rescue. He was eating at an Albuquerque restaurant when he heard a man was caught in a surging arroyo near Interstate-40.
Tingwall rushed to the scene, repelled down a cement wall and pulled the man out the arroyo.
Officer Wesley Cox, who was rescued Wednesday afternoon, was the victim of a drunk driving crash in 2004.
Cox made a traffic stop in I-25 near La Bajada when a drunk driver slammed into his police cruiser. The officer broke his leg in the crash.
In Memory of Sergeant Andrew Tingwall
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