No cause yet named; darkness, fog cited
The National Transportation Safety Board team investigating the Dec. 14 helicopter crash outside Dagsboro that killed developer/philanthropist Josh Freeman and his pilot, Alisa Howell, has issued its preliminary report on the crash.
The report does not name a cause in the crash, as is customary for preliminary factual reports from the NTSB. Investigators on the scene Dec. 15 noted that their work was focused on the collection of information that would be presented to the five-member NTSB board, which issues final reports on all such crashes.
The final report on the Dec. 14 accident is not expected until December of 2007, the year-long period customary for the NTSB’s investigation and findings process.
The preliminary report notes the early winter sunset and the heavy fog that was reported as patchy throughout the area that Thursday night, with witnesses estimating visibility as low as an eighth-mile shortly prior to and after the crash.
Witnesses describe crash
In the NTSB report, an eyewitness to the crash had his account described by investigators as follows (all times in 24-hour military-style time):
“Another witness was working about 800 feet from the accident site at the time of the accident. According to the witness, about 1815, he heard the helicopter’s engine start, and proceeded outside to watch the takeoff. The helicopter climbed vertically to a height just above the trees that were to its left and above the utility lines that were to its front, and hovered for a moment. While hovering, the landing light of the helicopter turned on, off, on, and off again.
“The helicopter then pitched nose down and began to accelerate forward. The witness expected to see the helicopter climb, as he had seen other helicopters do in the past; however, the accident helicopter just accelerated forward in a shallow descent until it impacted the ground. When asked about the sound of the helicopter or its engine during the takeoff, he stated that the sound was smooth and continuous, and that nothing sounded abnormal.
“The witness additionally described that at the time of the accident it was dark, the fog was dense, and that it thickened throughout the evening.”
Mechanical failure, impact considered in report
The preliminary report from the NTSB extensively describes the damage found to the helicopter but makes no conclusion as to any possible mechanical failure or whether any of the damage indicates an impact with surrounding terrain, utility lines or other objects prior to the final impact with the ground.
The report notes that the only visible marks made by the helicopter at the location where it took off prior to the crash were the depressions marking the apparent location of its landing gear skids upon that initial landing.
“No damage was noted in the tree line located about 50 feet south of the takeoff point, nor was any damage noted to the utility lines located about 300 feet west of the takeoff point. The beginning of the wreckage path was located 1,090 feet, bearing 297 degrees magnetic, from the takeoff point,” the report reads.
Investigators noted that the wreckage path was on flat terrain. The helicopter’s right skid was found lodged in the ground at a 40 degree angle to the surface, just beyond and parallel to an initial ground scar that was some 8 inches deep. The condition of the helicopter’s rotor blades suggested they had, at some point in the crash, impacted the craft’s fuselage and tailboom. They reported that many of the helicopter’s systems appeared to be functioning as would be expected.
Other witnesses also reported that the helicopter had sounded normal prior to the crash, with no audible indications of mechanical failure at that time.
‘Dark and foggy’
The report also details the flight information for Howell’s charter services on Dec. 14. She had begun her work day at 11:15 a.m., departing from the helicopter’s base in Manassas, Va., at 12:15 p.m.
Howell picked up Freeman at his residence in Gaithersburg, Md., at 12:30 p.m., bringing him to Ocean View for a holiday event at Freeman Companies’ Den at Bear Trap Dunes community, where, at 1:30 p.m., she dropped him off on the golf course — as was common for Freeman’s chartered flights to the area.
(Howell’s employers at HeloAir, based in Richmond, Va., would not comment on whether Howell had previously flown into the area on the company’s charter runs or how familiar she might have been with the Delaware coast. But State Rep. John Atkins said he and his wife, Heather, had flown with Howell this summer, from the coastal area north to Dover Downs Racetrack and that she had said at that time that it was a new destination for her.)
According to the NTSB, Howell proceeded from Bear Trap to the Sussex County Airport, where she refueled the helicopter and where it remained until 4:50 p.m. Howell departed Georgetown, scheduled to pick up Freeman at the Bear Trap Dunes golf course around 5:30 p.m. and return him to Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C.
As previously described by state police and confirmed by the NTSB report, witnesses spotted the Bell 407 helicopter flying in the area of the crash, just outside of Dagsboro, around 5 p.m., flying about 75 feet above the trees.
The report reads, “One witness observed the helicopter disappear into fog, and then reappear traveling in the opposite direction. When asked to describe the lighting and the weather in the area at the time, the other witness stated that it was dusk, and that fog was beginning to form. She added that by the time it was dark, around 1730, the fog had worsened and ‘you couldn’t see.’”
Also as previously described by state police, about 5:15 p.m., a Townsend family member reported to police that a helicopter he did not recognize had landed in his farm field. A state trooper arrived around 5:30 p.m. and spoke with Howell, who said “she was scheduled to pick up a passenger at a nearby golf club, but was unable to land there due to fog. She diverted from the intended destination and landed in the field to await the passenger’s arrival.”
“When asked about the light and weather conditions at the time the trooper was talking to the pilot, the trooper noted that it was ‘dark and foggy,’ the preliminary report said.
The trooper having departed the original landing site off Townsends Road, the next information on the crash comes from witnesses who both visually and audibly observed the crash, as described above.
One witness — an off-duty volunteer firefighter who reported the accident via radio about the same time as a 911 call from another witness came in to area emergency workers — noted that visibility while trying to reach the scene of the crash was an eighth-mile or less. Another witness reported he was forced to go back to retrieve a light just to make his way to the site.
Weather conditions reported at 6:01 p.m. at Sussex County Airport, 11 nautical miles north of the site, noted winds from 100 degrees at 3 knots and 3 statute miles in visibility in mist, with clear skies. At 6:40 p.m., visibility there had been reduced to just 1.25 statute miles in mist. The helicopter took off and crashed around 6:15 p.m.
The U.S. Naval Observatory recorded official sunset in Dagsboro on Dec. 14 at 4:41 p.m., well before the crash, with the end of twilight at 5:10 p.m. Moonrise was not until 2:21 a.m. the following morning, leaving the helicopter’s own lights as the main source of illumination in an otherwise dark and foggy sky.
(See the full preliminary report on the NTSB Web site at www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20061222X01838&key=1.) The NTSB’s final report on the crash will be reported in the Coastal Point and on its Web site as soon as it is made public, expected in December of 2007.