By Bill Carey
EMS1
OWENTON, Ky. — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released new details about a medical helicopter crash that killed all three crewmembers.
The Air Evac Lifeteam Bell 206 helicopter crashed near Owenton on Oct. 7 while en route to pick up a patient. Paramedic James Welsh, nurse Bethany Aicken and pilot Gale “Butch” Alleman, Jr., died at the scene, WXIX reported.
The NTSB report stated that the crew coordinated with the landing zone near a high school while en route. Arriving in the area, the pilot said he had the high school in sight and would circle before landing. Two minutes later, fire department units reported the helicopter crash.
Several witnesses said “that the helicopter approached from the north at ‘low altitude’ with no unusual sounds or movements,” the report states. “A guyed television signal transmission tower, with a height of 601 feet above ground level and was on the high school campus adjacent to the LZ (landing zone).”
The report went on to state that witnesses saw the helicopter strike one of the guy wires supporting the tower before it crashed. Several detailed written statements described watching the helicopter hit the wire, seeing the wire “move,” and seeing “pieces"— specifically the main rotor — separate from the helicopter before both the helicopter and the rotor system descended separately to the ground.
The wreckage showed the helicopter’s blades were damaged from hitting a guy wire. The tower’s top northwest guy wire was also damaged, with bent tensioning rods and broken vibration detectors, according to the NTSB.
The helicopter had no black box or cockpit voice recorder.
