posted Sep 28th, 2009 - Good and bad news at the same time reached the NSL News last week. A helicopter crash near San Diego in California was related to Natasha Montgomery, 4-way world champion with DeLand Fire in Germany 2006.

The bad news was the fact that Natasha Montgomery was indeed the pilot of her own Robinson R-44 chopper, which crashed in the rugged mountain area. The good news is that all people on board survived and were treated only for injuries. Airspeed member Craig Girard said that Natasha Montgomery had already responded to text messages when he spoke with the NSL News last week.

Two people injured in helicopter crash near Lake Wohlford

CBS8, San Diego, California

Authorities said two people were seriously injured in a helicopter crash in a remote part of the San Pasqual Valley. The Robinson R-44 went down around 2:40 p.m. at Rancho Guejito, east of Lake Wohlford between Valley Center and Ramona, said Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Gregor said the four-seater chopper went down in rugged terrain, and a dispatcher with Cal Fire said it took an hour to find the wreckage. Two people in the helicopter were airlifted to Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, she said.

The aircraft is registered to Gillian Blue GP, a corporation based in Dallas, Gregor said. The craft suffered substantial damage, he said. The cause of the crash was under investigation.

Natasha Montgomery was the first female 4-way competitor who won a gold medal at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving when she competed with DeLand Fire in Germany 2006. She made her first skydive in November 2002 and won the World Meet less than four years later.

After the first years of training as an individual and then soon with 4-way teams, including Arizona Blade with Thomas Hughes and Mark Kirkby, winner of the NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2004, she hired Gary Smith, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo as player coaches in 2005.

DeLand Fire trained throughout the 2005 season and won the USPA Nationals 2005 in Perris after a jump-off with the Golden Knights. Her team continued to train in 2006, represented the USA at the World Meet 2006 and won the gold medals over France and Italy.

Natasha Montgomery retired from serious 4-way competition after the World Meet 2006 and joined a few 4-way lineups just for fun here and there. Eventually, she began to train for her pilot's license.

She continued as a pilot and included the challenging rating to fly helicopters in her licenses. Finally she bought her own chopper and flew with passengers.

Natasha Montgomery was one of the people in her helicopter who were airlifted to Palomar Medical Center in Escondido. The NSL News will try to follow up with more information.