Helicopter crash: Radio tower lights at issue

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: Radio tower's lights at issue in fatal helicopter crash : A medical helicopter that crashed late Wednesday in Aurora killing four people likely struck support wires for a 750-foot-tall radio antenna, federal investigators said. : The helicopter's main rotor blade was found more than 100 yards from the wreckage of the Air Angels medical transport flight. That indicates the blade came into contact with something in midair, said John Brannen, the National Transportation Safety Board's lead investigator on the case. : Brannen described the wreckage as consisting mainly of small pieces with few larger fragments. The material is being moved to Poplar Grove Airport near Rockford where it will be pieced back together to help determine the specific cause of the crash, he said. It is unknown if the helicopter suffered some kind of mechanical failure that caused it to fly into the tower support wire. : The crash occurred just before midnight in a cornfield near Eola Road and Liberty Street on Aurora's far east side, authorities said. : Emergency workers responding to the crash reported finding the helicopter engulfed in flames upon arrival. : The crash claimed the lives of the helicopter's three-man flight crew and a 14-month-old girl from Leland, about five miles west of Sandwich. The helicopter was transporting the young girl from Valley West Hospital in Sandwich to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago for a higher level of care, according to officials from the Sandwich Hospital. They would not disclose the girl's maladies. : Aurora police identified the girl as Kirstin Blockinger. They said the flight nurse was William Mann, 31, of Chicago; pilot Del Waugh, 69, of Carmel, Ind.; and paramedic Ronald Battiato, 41, of Peotone. : The pilot had been in contact with air traffic controllers at the DuPage Airport before the crash, but Brannen said there was no indication of a distress call. : Initially, medical officials wanted to fly the child to Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, where spokeswoman Amy Jo Steinbruecker said Kirstian "frequently" had been a patient in the past. : "We only have six beds in the pediatric intensive care unit, and unfortunately all of those beds were full last night," Steinbruecker said. "We are all very sad. We regularly work with Air Angels, so we worked with those guys a lot. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of all the victims." : Steinbruecker said it is common practice to determine transport destinations before takeoff. : Authorities have cordoned off the crash site and a large swath of land around the tower, and the flight space around it remains a no-fly zone. Residents near the tower were evacuated after the crash after authorities became fearful the massive tower could topple. Police are telling some residents of a nearby apartment complex they may have to find overnight housing elsewhere because the tower won't be fixed until Friday at the earliest. : The tower is owned by Elgin Broadcasting Co. It is outfitted with six strobe lights - three in the middle and three near the top. Elgin Broadcasting President Rick Jakle said the lights were seen in operation at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Brannen said all the lights were out when he arrived an hour and a half after the crash. : Federal Aviation Administration officials said the lights have to be checked daily, and operators are required to notify the agency of any lighting malfunctions within 30 minutes of an outage. FAA officials said they began warning pilots about the tower light outage at around 2 a.m. There is no set distance helicopter pilots must maintain away from such lights, they are simply warnings to pilots, officials said. : "We will be looking at the lighting of the tower to see if the lights were operational," Brannen said. : The tower is a fairly well-known aeronautical landmark in the area, said Joe DePaulo, manager of Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport. : "Del Waugh was as topnotch a pilot as you'd ever want to know," he said. "A lot of time you think of what could have happened, but this time nobody could really figure out what happened, and it's just so hard for me to believe that this is some mistake on his part." : Jakle said a team of structural engineers and tower specialists were attempting to stabilize and repair the structure so the nearby families could return home. He added that helicopter blade strike marks on a support wire appear on the 700-foot level. : The tower's height is about 750 feet. The last radar signal from the helicopter showed it at about 1,400 feet above sea level, which would be roughly 700 feet above the ground, Brannen said. He added that weather reports show clear skies below 12,000 feet at the time of the crash. Officials at the National Weather Service forecast bureau in Romeoville said the last wind speed reading out of the closest station at the DuPage Airport indicated speeds of less than 10 mph. Visibility was 10 miles, they said. : Some neighbors said they were awakened by the crash. : "It bounced me right out of bed," said Janine Keating, a resident who lives across the street from the crash site. : She and her husband ran across the street after seeing flames. : "Based on the fire, it was obvious there was no one left to help," she said. : Jody Hall lives in the adjacent apartment complex and heard the helicopter. He ran outside and saw the crash followed by smoke and flames. : "It was kind of like a train," he said, "like a rumbling and just a big bang." : Others thought it was merely a passing storm and went back to sleep. : "We just thought it was a thunderstorm," said Shannon Newman. "We heard a boom and some light and just thought it was thunder and lightning." : The crash is Bolingbrook-based Air Angels third in five years. In 2003, pilot Mike Russell died when the Air Angels helicopter he had taken on a refueling run crashed in a field near the DuPage Airport. Investigators ruled the cause of the crash was due to pilot error. : In 2007, pilot Steve Kamenir successfully landed an Air Angels helicopter after one of the chopper's two engines burst into flames while he was responding to a car crash in Sugar Grove. He walked away uninjured. No record of an NTSB investigation into the incident could be found. : Air Angels officials said they have two other helicopters, but they have suspended all operations for the time being. : "We really lost three members of our family last night," said Michael Dermont, the company's director of business development. "It's going to be grieving and mourning for quite some time." : Air Angels Crew Information : Pilot: Del Waugh : Employed since: 7/25/2006 : Age: 69 years : Hometown: Carmel : Nurse: William (Bill) Mann : Employed since: 7/6/08 : Age: 31 years : Hometown: Chicago : Paramedic: Ron Battiato : Employed since: 1/5/08 : Age: 41 years : Hometown: Peotone : : (Jake Griffin & Justin Kmitch, Daily Herald)

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