CLARK COUNTY — The National Transportation Safety Board is releasing new details about a deadly helicopter in Clark County last month.
The NTSB released its preliminary report into the July 29 crash near Springfield that killed Isaac Santos, 36, of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
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Santos was flying a Bell 206-L4 helicopter on an agricultural flight. He was spraying a cornfield when the helicopter hit the middle two of four “75-100-ft-tall high tension power transmission lines,” according to the report. The lines were perpendicular to the direction he was spraying.
The crash severed the transmission lines.
After hitting the lines, the helicopter crashed into the cornfield roughly 150 feet from the power lines.
“The tail boom had separated near the aft portion of the fuselage and was found forward of the main wreckage. Debris, including sections of the spray system, were located along the wreckage path,” the report states. “The main rotor blades had separated and were found near the main wreckage.”
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NTSB investigators stated that “flight control continuity was established for all major flight controls from the cockpit to the control surface.”
As News Center 7 previously reported that federal investigators said Santos was flying for Helicopter Applicators Inc., a Gettysburg, PA-based company. The July wreck was the fifth crash involving one of the company’s aircraft since 2009, but none of the previous four were deadly.
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