Tennessee Helicopter Crash: All 5 Aboard Killed Near Great Smoky Mountains National Park
A tourist helicopter crashed Monday in eastern Tennessee killing all five people aboard, officials said. The crash occurred near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and over a dozen emergency vehicles were at the site hours after the crash.
The Bell 206 chopper crashed at about 3:30 p.m. EDT, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told the Associated Press. According to officials, the helicopter was damaged by fire following the crash, the AP reported.
“There's not much left of the helicopter,” Pigeon Forge Police Chief Jack Baldwin reportedly said. “It's pretty much gone from the fire. ... There’s a little bit of the tail fin of the helicopter, and that's about all that's left, that and the console, that's about it.”
No information on the deceased was immediately available.
According to Baldwin, FAA officials were on their way to Pigeon Forge to investigate the crash, CNN reported. Registration details about the Bell 206 helicopter were not immediately available, the FAA said, the report added.
A spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, Dean Flener, said the crash sparked fire at the site and that emergency personnel were working to make sure it did not spread, the New York Times reported. Flener added that no one on the ground was injured following the crash.
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