Nearly a month after the deadly Chopper 6 crash that claimed the lives of the photographer and pilot, the National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report about their investigation.
Chopper 6 was returning from an assignment on December 19th when it crashed in Wharton State Forest around 8 p.m.
The fatal crash claimed the lives of 68-year-old pilot Monroe Smith and 45-year-old photographer Chris Dougherty, who were both longtime members of the 6ABC Action News team.
On Wednesday, the NTSB released a preliminary report, which included a detailed description of the Chopper 6's final flight and the crash site.
On December 19, Chopper 6 departed from Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE), after it was dispatched about 8 miles east of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
This assignment had been the third flight of the day for the helicopter, and it had been refueled prior to takeoff.
Chopper 6 departed from the airport at 7:23 p.m., arrived at the scene approximately 20 minutes later, and began collecting video footage for 6ABC.
After about 10 minutes on scene, 6ABC's assignment desk cleared Chopper 6 to return to PNE.
After about two and half hours had passed, 6ABC notified US Helicopters after the assignment had tried to reach Chopper 6 and was unable to contact them either by radio or telephone.
U.S Helicopters confirmed that Chopper 6 had not returned to PNE and attempted to obtain the last location information and the time frame of the last contact.
State, local authorities, and the FAA were also contacted with the last available information for Chopper 6.
The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast tracking platform showed that Chopper 6's last location was about 4 miles east/northeast of Hammonton Municipal Airport.
At approximately 12:05 a.m. on December 20, Chopper 6 was found crashed in a
densely wooded area of the Wharton State Forest near Hammonton, New Jersey.
According to preliminary air traffic control data from the FAA, Chopper 6 had drifted off the established flight track at 8:01 p.m.
Less than a minute later, Chopper 6 began to descend to an altitude of 775 ft.
As minutes ticked by, Chopper 6 continued to descend and reached 250 ft at approximately 8:03 p.m.
A witness told officials that he saw a "giant orange ball" descending into the forest.
After officials examined the wreckage path they identified the tree strike began at approximately 320° heading for about 600 ft to where the main wreckage came to rest.
The wreckage site revealed that most of the helicopter was heavily impacted and had been consumed by a postimpact fire. The only remaining pieces were portions of the tail boom,
doors, and small pieces that had separated from the helicopter during the initial impact.
The instrument panel had separated and the rest of the cockpit/cabin area was destroyed.
All three rotor blades were found at the main wreckage site and had remained attached.
The flight control system and main rotor drive system could not be examined due to the impact of fire damage. However, the NTSB noted that no pre-impact anomalies were found.
The NTSB also stated that no anomalies of the engine were discovered that would have impacted normal operation.
According to the FAA, Pilot Monroe Smith held a commercial pilot certificate with ratings for airplane, single-engine land, rotorcraft-helicopter, and instrument helicopter and he had accrued approximately 8,597 total flight hours.