Burning helicopter tangled in power lines forces four to jump, kills two, NY cops say
First responders discovered a burning helicopter dangling from power lines in upstate New York Tuesday afternoon when they arrived at a field in Beekmantown.
Four contractors had been using the 1981 Aerospatiale helicopter to work on the lines for the New York Power Authority, New York State Police said in a news release.
All four men jumped out of the burning helicopter, the Press-Republican reports, killing two: Robert Hoban, Jr., a 56-year-old pilot from Shamong, New Jersey, and Jeremy Kearns, a 30-year-old passenger in the helicopter from Massena, New York, according to state police.
Authorities said the chopper had been 65 to 80 feet above the ground when it got stuck in the lines, WCAX reports. Video from the scene shows part of the wreckage on the ground, while part of it hangs precariously in the lines, until that fiery mass comes crashing to the ground as well.
Autopsies for the two men who died are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, state police said. Authorities said the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash, in addition to state police.
The other two men in the helicopter — Benjamin McAllister, a 30-year-old from Hopkinton, New York, and Scott Fabia, a 34-year-old from Hyde Park, New York — were hospitalized.
A man helped pull the injured men away from the crash before the fiery helicopter came loose from the power lines and fell, the Press-Republican reports. The man wouldn’t give his name, but said “they jumped out” and that “it was either jump out or burn to death,” the newspaper reports.
“At some point something catastrophic happened that caused the aircraft to crash,” Clinton County Emergency Manager Eric Day said, according to ABC News. “That’s not been determined yet what really the cause was.”
Vermont Electric Co-op said that 2,900 customers in the area lost power following the crash, NBC 5 reports. Beekmantown is about 35 miles northwest of Burlington, Vermont.
Police said the contractors had been putting in pulleys on the tops of the utility poles, which would allow fiber optic lines to be strung parallel to the power lines, the Press-Republican reports.