‘He always made you feel safe.’ WBTV helicopter pilot Chip Tayag ‘loved what he did’
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WBTV Helicopter Crash
On Nov. 22, 2022, WBTV meteorologist Jason Myers and pilot Chip Tayag tragically lost their lives in a helicopter crash. Read the ongoing coverage from The Charlotte Observer below.
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Chip Tayag will forever be remembered as a hero, said his friends, colleagues and those who saw or responded to the crash of the WBTV Sky3 helicopter he was piloting Tuesday.
Tayag potentially saved lives when something still unknown went awry with the helicopter above south Charlotte, with station meteorologist Jason Myers aboard.
Tayag somehow avoided Interstate 77 and office buildings, crashing in a small, grassy area beside the highway. Both Tayag and Myers died in the crash.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said Tayag appeared to make “diversionary moves” to avoid hitting traffic. He called the pilot a hero.
“It looks like a heroic incident where the pilot tried to avoid injuring anyone else, or putting anyone else in danger,” Jennings said.
“Remarkably, Chip’s last actions may have saved even more people from harm,” N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein said on Twitter, expressing his “deepest condolences to Jason and Chip’s families and loved ones and the @WBTV_News family over this heartbreaking news.”
The helicopter “was going down, and he got it just off the highway and avoided it,” a witness told WCNC Charlotte. “That could’ve injured a lot of people. It’s a tragic thing, but in that sense, he did a marvelous job.”
WBTV Chief Meteorologist Al Conklin described Tayag as “a hero, hands down.”
‘Always happy and laughing,’ wife says
“Chip was the most selfless and loving person I’ve ever known,’” his wife, Kerry, said in a statement to WBTV. “... He was always happy and laughing, with that big beautiful smile that I love to see.”
She described Tayag as “my best friend and the love of my life. I know this separation is only temporary — no matter how terribly permanent it feels — because I know we will be reunited one day.”
‘A damn good pilot’
Colleagues said they always felt relaxed flying with the 57-year-old Tayag, who joined WBTV in 2017 and flew helicopters for more than 20 years.
“He always made you feel safe,” Molly Grantham told viewers while anchoring hours of coverage with WBTV colleague Jamie Boll Tuesday.
“Chip was a damn good pilot and calmed my first flight fears,” WBTV reporter David Hodges said on Twitter.
“We trusted Chris with our lives,” WBTV anchor-reporter Shevaun Bryan told viewers Tuesday.
Tayag always came to work “with a smile and a positive attitude,” WBTV chief photographer Corey Schmidt said on air.
He was “super nice,” Schmidt said during Tuesday’s WBTV broadcast. And “super cautious” when it came to the helicopter.
When Boll told viewers he never saw Myers “have a bad day,” and that Myers was “always excited to see people,” he quickly added: “Chip was the same way.”
Myers and Tayag had the same “bright smiles,“ WBTV anchor-reporter Caroline Hicks told viewers. “Every day I’d see Chip, he’d say, ‘Hey, Caroline, when are we going to go fly?’ Chip just loved what he did.”
From IT to commercial helicopters
Tayag worked for nearly 24 years as an IT professional in Maryland before shifting full-time to piloting commercial helicopters, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He spent roughly five of his final IT years also piloting for a small Maryland firm that took photographs of powerboats, sailboats and private properties, his LinkedIn page shows.
He then piloted tour rides for a year over the Annapolis and Baltimore areas, and the Chesapeake coastline.
Out of the Norfolk, Virginia, area, he spent a couple of months flying survey routes of pipelines belonging to various utilities.
Tayag headed south after that, flying for two Myrtle Beach tour operators for a couple years before joining WBTV as a contract news-gathering pilot the past five years.
He was all focus and seriousness preparing for a flight and piloting Sky3, colleagues said.
WBTV reporter David Whisenant showed viewers a picture of him and Tayag in the chopper one day. Whisenant was laughing in the photo and said he was trying to joke with Tayag.
Look at Tayag, he said. He was concentrating on something, no smile at all, as if he hadn’t heard a word of Whisenant’s attempted bantering.
No matter how busy he was on the helipad outside the station, however, Tayag dropped what he was doing whenever Whisenant came outside with a visiting school group.
He answered every last question from the students, no matter how long the visit took, Whisenant said.
As Boll said: “Chip would take the time to explain every last part of the helicopter if you wanted him to.”
In WBTV’s video tribute to Tayag, Schmidt said the two most important things to Tayag were his wife, Kerry, and his faith.
Close members of his family also live in Maryland, North Carolina and Texas, none of whom could be reached Wednesday.
“He loved his wife very much,” Schmidt said. “And his Catholic faith was very important to him, which is something he and I shared. That makes a day like today a little bit easier because I know that he had a faith in a higher power. And I hope he’s with the Lord today.”
Funeral arrangements
Tayag’s funeral is scheduled for noon Wednesday, Nov. 30, at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, 7095 Waxhaw Highway in Lancaster, South Carolina, where he and his wife were parishioners, Spectrum News reported. Burial will be in Maryland.
Visitation will be 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, at Palmetto Funeral Home, 2049 Carolina Place Drive in Fort Mill.
Tayag also is survived by his step-children, parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, according to a GoFundMe site that raised $40,383 by Friday morning for his funeral expenses. That well surpassed the $15,000 goal.
This story was originally published November 23, 2022 at 3:00 PM with the headline "‘He always made you feel safe.’ WBTV helicopter pilot Chip Tayag ‘loved what he did’."
