Washington, DC — Although the cause of a recent helicopter crash in Lyon County that injured two has yet to be released, the National Transportation Safety Board or “NTSB” has released a few more details about the mishap.
The crash, on Monday, November 6th, near the West Lyon School happened about ten minutes into the flight, which took off at about 1 p.m.
The details that were known previously are that those in the helicopter, which was owned by Ride The Sky Helicopters, were looking for 300 lost cattle. Lyon County Sheriff Stewart Vander Stoep says that the pilot was Robert Krier of Sioux Falls, and the passenger was Steve Ahrendt of rural Inwood, who was the owner of the cattle. The victims were taken to Sioux Falls hospitals with serious, but non-life threatening injuries. Witnesses said that the tail of the helicopter struck the power lines.
Here are the new details that were released this week by the NTSB.
The model of the aircraft was a Robinson Helicopter R44, with a tail number of N7085M.
Pilot Robert Krier is a commercial pilot. The NTSB calls the weather conditions at the time, “marginal visual meteorological conditions.” No FAA flight plan was filed.
The NTSB says that witnesses on the ground observed the helicopter hovering and as it started to turn the “tail” of the helicopter hit the power lines. The helicopter descended to the ground and came to rest on its right side in a cornfield. The tail boom separated from the fuselage and both main rotors were substantially damaged.
An NTSB investigator tells KIWA that the full report including the cause of the accident probably won’t be available for six months from the crash date, putting it sometime in May, 2018.
