Crop duster dies in helicopter crash near Nashua

By Bob Fenske, Of the Reporter

A Kansas man died in a crop-dusting helicopter crash that took place northeast of Nashua on Monday.

Chickasaw County Sheriff Ryan Shawver said that at about 1:30 p.m. the Sheriff’s Office Dispatch Center received a 911 call of a recording that showed that the owner of an iPhone had been involved in a crash.

Deputies were dispatched and found the pilot, Eleazar Villafranca Jr. of Manhattan, Kansas who was pronounced dead by the Chickasaw County medical examiner.

“Basically, the victim had an app on his iPhone that detects crashes and automatically call 911,” Shawver said. “We get more of those calls than people think, and most of the time, it’s nothing – we’ll get calls because a phone was left on top of a car, for example – but unfortunately, this wasn’t one of them.”

Shawver said that a full autopsy has been ordered to be completed by the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office.

According to an online obituary, the 36-year-old Villafranca “passed away doing what he loved most, flying helicopters as an aerial applicator.”

He leaves behind a wife and three children.

Shawver added that the crash remains under investigation by the Iowa State Patrol, the Federal Aviation Agency and the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by the Nashua Fire Department, Chickasaw County Rescue Squad, Chickasaw EMS, Chickasaw EMA, Chickasaw County Medical Examiner, Office of the State Medical Examiner of Iowa, Iowa State Patrol, New Hampton Police Department, FAA, NTSB, Corn Belt Power Cooperative and Hugeback-Johnson Funeral Home.