Injuries serious in helicopter crash near Allentown airport Sunday

Authorities have released few details about the Sunday afternoon helicopter crash that seriously injured two men.

Media and social media reports have identified the occupants of the training helicopter as Matthew McMillan, of Allentown, an instructor for the Ace Pilot aviation training school based at Lehigh Valley International Airport, and Tim Brown, a student.

Authorities have not said who was at the controls when the aircraft, a Schweizer 269C, clipped a building in an industrial park on the 900 block of Postal Road and crashed. The building houses Schaefer Industrial Ceramics, which makes pouring cups and other parts for metal casting industries.

The incident just outside the airport is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration.

No one from that agency responded to requests for comment Tuesday.

Authorities initially said the men escaped without serious injuries, but McMillan’s father, Lewis, told a local television station that his son had spinal fractures and brain trauma and was in critical condition at St. Luke’s University Hospital in Fountain Hill.

St. Luke’s declined to release any information on McMillan on Tuesday.

Brown was hospitalized in serious condition with several spinal fractures, according to a Facebook post from his wife.

No one from either family could be reached Tuesday.

No one from Ace Pilot responded to a request for comment.

McMillan’s Facebook page says he originally comes from North Carolina and studied helicopter aviation in the Middle Georgia State University flight department.