CHEROKEE – The rescue operations at Colbert Landing Park on the south shore of the Tennessee River this morning got off to a slow start. It was expected that search and recovery efforts for the downed pilot of a small helicopter would begin shortly after 8:00 am, however that wasn’t the case. Vehicles from over 10 State, County and Local agencies, all involved in the effort to recover the HU-500 started rolling in about 10:oo am, and things got moving a bit after Noon.
The helicopter, owned by Haverfield Aviation of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania crashed into the river about 1:00pm on Monday of this week as it was being flown to Scottsboro from Corinth. The aircraft encountered a line of severe thunderstorms. It has yet to be determined if the weather caused the loss of the chopper, but authorities at the scene speculate it probably was a contributing factor.
The name of the pilot has not yet been released.
On Tuesday, Haverfield brought another of its HU-500’s in to assist in the search/recovery efforts. Today the Alabama Department of Public Safety flew in a Hughes Bell Jet Ranger, and the Alabama National Guard brought in one of it’s ships, equipped with some sophisticated electronics, to help locate the pilot. As of this writing, those helicopters are not engaged in the search, but are being held in a standby role.
The first step today was introducing cadaver dogs from Maury County EMA and Sumner County EMA, both of Tennessee, into the search effort. They were put into boats and taken out to the pinpointed-location of the downed helicopter to try and determine if any remains are at the site. Yesterday, divers who found the chopper were unsussessful in locating the pilot in the wreckage.
Here are some photos from the search so far:
