The commander of the Virginia State Police aviation unit, Lt. Jay Cullen, and fellow trooper-pilot Berke Bates were killed at 4:51 p.m August 12 when their Bell 407 crashed and burned in a wooded area near the Birdwood Golf Course seven miles southwest of Charlottesville. Eyewitnesses said the aftmost part of the 2001 helicopter's tailboom, including the tail rotor and the vertical fin, separated from the aircraft in flight.
An NTSB spokesman said the crew did not transmit a distress call. The officers had been dispatched from the State Police base in Lynchburg in late morning to provide surveillance and tactical support for law enforcement dealing with a day-long violent and racially charged protest in Charlottesville that left one dead and dozens injured.
They had taken off from Charlottesville Airport on their final sortie of the day at around 4 p.m. Cullen was a 20-year veteran of the police force and a 14-year member of the aviation unit and was a CFII in fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Bates had joined the unit in July.