A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board said a person in a vehicle on I-24 saw a helicopter hit a power line in the Aug. 23 fatal crash near Whiteside, Tn. Pilot Lee Russell and passenger Matt Blansett died in the crash.
The witness said he was driving eastbound on I-24 toward Chattanooga when he saw a dark-colored helicopter going westbound and flying low. He said he was talking on the phone to his wife and he told her how concerned he was that the helicopter was flying so low near powerlines.
He then saw the Bell 206B helicopter strike the power lines and observed an "arc".
The helicopter spun a few times and it appeared the pilot was trying to regain control, the report says. The helicopter then went out of view.
At the same time, a broken section of a power line cable fell on the highway in front of the driver's vehicle. He was unable to stop in time and ran over the cable.
The helicopter was located in a steep, heavily wooded section nearby, and both occupants were deceased.
The report says the helicopter was operated as a public use aerial observation flight by the Tennessee Department of Safety. The pilot was a sergeant with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and the passenger/observer was a detective with the Marion County's Sheriff's Office.
It says the pilot and the passenger/observer had been conducting a joint-agency marijuana eradication mission that day and stopped for lunch and fuel at the Marion County Airport in Jasper. The pilot purchased 48 gallons of fuel.
After lunch, a call came in requesting back up for a pursuit that the Tennessee Department of Safety was engaged in. The pilot felt the pursuit would be over before they arrived to assist.
Then a call came in about a missing person case that the passenger/observer was working and was not associated with the eradication mission.The pilot and passenger/observer departed at 4:01 p.m. and flew to a set of coordinates of where the missing person was believed to be. The missing person was not located, and the helicopter returned to join the eradication efforts.
The report says, "The nose of the helicopter was embedded in the ground on a ravine wall with the tail section pointed straight up in the air. There was no post-impact fire. The tail boom (minus the tail rotor) separated from the helicopter just aft of the horizontal stabilizer and was located downhill of the helicopter. This section of tail boom exhibited an impact mark consistent with contact of the main rotor blade.
"The tail rotor (minus one blade) was located approximately 100 feet east of where the helicopter came to rest and under the powerlines. Damage to the tail rotor and tail rotor gearbox was consistent with impact damage. The other tail rotor blade was not located.
"The top portion of the vertical stabilizer had also separated from the helicopter and was found under the powerlines and adjacent to a set of train tracks located north of where the helicopter came to rest. The fractured area of the vertical stabilizer exhibited striated gouging marks consistent with contact with power lines.
"One of the two main rotor blades remained partially attached and was fractured just outboard of the doubler. Examination of the blade revealed striated impact marks on the bottom of the blade about 2/3 outboard of the blade root. These striated marks were consistent with impact with the powerline. The other blade separated just outside its doubler and was found uphill of where the helicopter came to rest. The trailing edge tip of the blade exhibited arcing.The wreckage and a handheld GPS unit were retained for further examination."