14 DAY TRIAL // A helicopter crash in Pennsylvania at the weekend has left all the people aboard dead, reports say. Passengers included a child.
Police have not yet released the names of the victims, but they were flying in a small Robinson 66 chopper. The aircraft went down on Saturday in Wyoming County.
According to The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, it had taken off from the Tri Cities Airport in Endicott, N.Y. It was headed for the Jake Arner Memorial Airport in Lehighton.
Recovery teams found the downed helicopter at roughly 1:50 p.m. on Sunday, with the help of an emergency locator beacon. Beacons are safety devices that put out a signal in case the aircraft crashes, making it possible for it to be found.
“When an aircraft is in distress there is a beacon that gets set off, and we have receivers that can say it is to our left or to our right,’” Tunkhannock pilot Bobby Zampetti says.
He mentions that the pilot got in contact with the controller at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.
He was losing altitude and he crashed soon after telling operators about it. Zampetti suggests that weather might have played a part in the accident.
“But when weather becomes a factor, and I’m thinking about 9:30 , 10 o’clock last night when they said this may have occurred, it was very nasty and visibilities were quite poor.
“Why the helicopter got into this area, no idea. But any time weather becomes a factor, you’re messing with disaster,” Zampetti says.
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the altitude loss and that of the fall.
“They going to look at the aircraft. They’re going to look at mechanical, they’re going to look at fuel, which when you’re in the bad weather or so, they’re also going to take a look at the pilot’s qualifications,” Zampetti adds.