Helicopter ops on Cessna airplane: Air traffic controllers to hold

The helicopter was over the intersection of Interstate 275 and Cypress Street, and Dennison made a beeline toward the airport, telling air traffic controllers to hold all flights until they got there. Tampa police helicopter pilot Dave Dennison and flight observer Brian Gentry were almost halfway into their 12-hour night shift when they heard the stressed voice of a pilot in a Cessna airplane approaching Tampa International Airport just before midnight.

A pilot himself, Dennison could tell by the tone of the man’s voice that something was seriously wrong, though the pilot, identified as 58-year-old Mark E. Love, of Tampa, never declared an emergency.

Dennison and Gentry spotted the Cessna from about five miles away amid a million twinkling lights around Memorial Highway and Hillsborough Avenue.