Probe: Doomed Philadelphia information helicopter hit bushes quick, broke up, then burned, killing 2 on board

A Philadelphia tv information helicopter getting back from an project photographing Christmas lights earlier this week plunged right into a southern New Jersey forest “at very excessive velocity,” broke aside, then caught fireplace after it crashed, killing each occupants, a federal crash investigator mentioned Friday.

Todd Gunther, an investigator with the Nationwide Transportation Security Board, informed reporters close to the crash web site that WPVI’s Chopper 6 was returning to its base at Northeast Philadelphia Airport Tuesday evening when one thing brought about it to crash into Wharton State Forest in Washington Township.

The crew had been photographing Christmas gentle shows close to Atlantic Metropolis.

Killed within the crash had been the pilot, 67-year-old Monroe Smith of Glenside, Pennsylvania, and a photographer, 45-year-old Christopher Dougherty of Oreland, Pennsylvania.

“The plane hit at very excessive velocity, and after putting the bushes, it fragmented,” Gunther mentioned, including the broken plane “was topic to a post-crash fireplace.”

Investigators had been in a position to decide that there was no in-flight fireplace or explosion, he mentioned.

Examination of the primary rotor and tail rotors confirmed injury indicating that they had been turning once they struck bushes, Gunther mentioned, and the helicopter had energy on the time of the crash and its transmission was functioning.

There isn’t a indication the pilot broadcast any kind of emergency warning, Gunther added.

The chopper made two earlier flights on Tuesday earlier than the crash.

Investigators are searching for something which will have both contributed to or brought about the crash, which occurred on a transparent, chilly evening, Gunther mentioned.

Wreckage from the crash is being eliminated to a safe off-site facility, the place it’s being reassembled to assist within the investigation into the trigger. That features the nostril, tail and each side of the helicopter.

It might be about two years earlier than the NTSB publicizes its findings into what brought about the crash, Gunther mentioned.

The particles area stretched for 200 yards within the woods, about twice the size initially calculated.

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Comply with Wayne Parry on X, previously Twitter, at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC