One of the Gwinnett County (GA) police officers involved in a helicopter crash earlier this month is paralyzed from the waist down.
On Monday, officials released the names and conditions of the two officers who were flying “Air One” when it crashed at Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville on Sept. 1. Cpl. Michael Duncan, 46, was paralyzed from the waist down in the accident and Officer George McLain, 38, who was in command of the helicopter, has been released from the hospital but is still recovering.
Duncan was hired in February of 2005. He’s a veteran of the Marine Corps. McLain was hired in January 2016 and is a member of the Georgia Air National Guard.
“Air One” was flying around Lawrenceville on Sept. 1, helping ground officers chase a wanted suspect. While they were in the air, the pilots began to notice a shift in the weather and notified the ground officers that they needed to return to the hangar.
The helicopter went down at about 11 a.m. just 200 yards from the police department’s hangar at Gwinnett County Airport at Briscoe Field, a municipal airport owned and operated by Gwinnett County.
The FAA investigation into the crash is still pending.