Federal report sheds new light on Alaska helicopter crash that killed 3 scientists, pilot

By MARK THIESSEN
Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A helicopter that crashed on Alaska’s North Slope in July, killing three state scientists and the pilot, stopped sending flight-status data to a real-time tracking system as it passed over the southeastern shoreline of an Arctic lake. That is according to a preliminary report on the crash released Tuesday. The Bell 206L-4 helicopter was later found partially submerged and fragmented in the lake, the National Transportation Safety Board report says. The last data transmissions indicated it was traveling in a northwesterly direction at an altitude of 144 feet above mean sea level, with a ground speed of 93 knots. A cause for the crash will come later in the board’s final report.