MIT Safety Office Director John Fresina reported this morning that MIT
rescue team members, training in the area, saw a helicopter crash onto
the roof of the Harvard sailing pavilion and pulled two state troopers,
both dead, from the copter.
State Police informed news reporters that four people died in the crash
of the State Police helicopter.
Fresina said the MIT rescue team members, from the Physical Plant
department, said the copter was coming from the Kendall Square area and
"came straight down onto the corner of the boathouse." A member of the
team told newsmen that they broke down the door, grabbed a ladder, and
three members of the squad climbed onto the roof while other members
assisted them.
Three members of the rescue team were later taken to the MIT Medical
Center for treatment of minor cuts and bruises. The men, Neil Tomlinson,
Glenn Wilder and Paul Rudack, were treated and released.
The crash occurred around 9:30 a.m. on the Harvard Sailing Pavilion, a
grey wooden structure on the Charles River and Memorial Drive at
Wadsworth Street, near the Longfellow Bridge. The building is directly
across Memorial Drive from the MIT Sloan School of Management, but it is
not the MIT Sailing Pavilion, which is a block closer to the
Massachusetts Avenue Bridge.
MIT Police reported that gasoline from the copter spilled into the
Charles River. The gasoline was visible from TV news video reports from
a plane.
