The helicopter was found inverted in 16 feet of water near Cline’s personal island retreat. (Krystel Knowles/Bahamas ZNS Network via AP)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
According to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board, coal billionaire Chris Cline was killed at 2 a.m. July 4 with six others when the Agusta AW139 helicopter they were in crashed upon takeoff from Big Grand Cay in the Bahamas.
After liftoff, in clear but dark skies, the helicopter began spinning out of control. A witness “estimated that the helicopter rotated to the left three to four times. He then heard a ‘whoosh whoosh whoosh’ sound, and lost sight of the helicopter, which was followed by the sound of an impact.” They began a search and found the helicopter around 4:30, inverted in 16 feet of water, a mile northeast of where they departed, with the tailboom separated from the aft fuselage and broken into pieces. All of chopper’s main and tail blades had become separated from their rotors, “and one tail blade was not recovered,” says the report, released today.
Chris Cline, 2017
Jamel Toppin/The Forbes Collection
Forbes
The helicopter had taken off from Palm Beach International Airport about 1 a.m., with a pilot and copilot. According to a prelinary report from investigators of the NTSB, the chopper had been summoned to transport two of the passengers to Fort Lauderdale for medical treatment. It arrived at Big Grand Cay around 1:40 a.m. Because it was the middle of the night and too dark to see, the pilots were flying by “instrument flight rules.”
Another witness reported seeing the helicopter lift off, climb about 50 feet, “then shortly thereafter, he noted blue and white lights spinning to the left at a rate of about 1 to 2 seconds between rotations while descending.”
The victims were Cline’s daughter Kameron, 22, and her friends Brittney Searson, 21, and Jillian Clarke, 22 (all sorority sisters at LSU) as well as Delaney Wykle, 23, of Cline’s hometown of Beckley, West Virginia. The pilots were David Jude, 57, and Geoff Painter, 52, longtime associates of Cline.
The NTSB was asked to help investigate the crash by Bahamian authorities. They will continue to evaluate the flight recorder and wreckage, with a final report including probable cause completed within two years.
Forbes
