Copter lost power first, angler says
Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008
MOUNTAIN HOME — Larry Kuykendall was cleaning fish on the bank of the North Fork River on Tuesday when he heard an aircraft with engine trouble.
“It was having engine problems. It was sputtering,” Kuykendall said. “It was going whoo-pah-pah, whoo-pah-pah. Then, all of a sudden, we heard a boom and saw a big mushroom cloud.” Kuykendall and his nephew were about 1, 000 feet below Norfork Dam on Tuesday when a small helicopter flew overhead, clipped an electrical transmission line and crashed. Both men aboard died.
Kuykendall, a Little Rock businessman who was a helicopter crew chief in the Army in the 1970 s, said he’s certain the aircraft had engine trouble before hitting the power line.
“They lost power, and they could not get it back,” he said. “Then they clipped that line.” The crash of the 1965 Hughes Rotorcraft 269 B helicopter killed the pilot, James Dean Evertsen, 57, of West Plains, Mo., and his passenger, Randall J. Arthur, 51, of Marshfield, Mo.
The crash site below the dam is a rugged, wooded ravine accessible only on foot or by allterrain vehicle.
A team of investigators led by officials with the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the site Wednesday and searched for clues about the cause of the accident. Team members included investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration, Hughes Aircraft, and Textron Lycoming, the manufacturer of the helicopter engine.
Arthur, the helicopter passenger, worked for Sho-Me Power Electric Cooperative in Marshfield and was conducting a routine aerial inspection of the cooperative’s transmission line at the federal hydropower dam when the crash happened, a spokesman for Sho-Me Power said.
Evertsen was an experienced commercial pilot with Ozark Mountain Helicopters in Branson and had flown many power-line inspections, said his son, Casey Evertsen.
Kuykendall, who works in the cement business in Little Rock, said he and his 11-yearold nephew, Jacob Kuykendall of Cabot, arrived in the North Fork area Saturday for a fourday camping and fishing trip. Tuesday was their final day on the river before their return to central Arkansas.
Larry Kuykendall said he had his head down, keeping his eyes on the fish he was cleaning around 9: 30 a.m. Tuesday, when he heard the sound of a sputtering aircraft engine.
He said he never saw the helicopter: The accident happened so fast that he didn’t have time to look up before hearing the sound of it crashing to the ground. He also could not see the crash site from his vantage point beside the river, his nephew at his side.
But Kuykendall said he’s sure he heard a helicopter engine in trouble.
“The engine was running really loud. It was losing power. It was revving and sputtering,” said Kuykendall, 61.
“I know what an engine sounds like. It definitely had an engine problem.” Jeff Silliman, a member of the federal team investigating the crash, declined to comment on the probe when reached by cell phone at the crash site Wednesday afternoon. He referred questions to the safety board office in Washington, where a spokesman said the agency had no new information.
Local authorities said they don’t know what caused the crash or whether the aircraft experienced problems before hitting the transmission line.
Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery said Wednesday that the federal team was in charge of the investigation, and his office was assisting by guarding the crash scene at night and helping the team get in and out of the remote area.
Arthur, the helicopter passenger, was the right-of-way inspector for Sho-Me Power. The company had chartered the helicopter for a regular inspection of its transmission line, which begins in southern Missouri and ends at the federal dam in Baxter County, said Gary Fulks, Sho-Me Power’s general manager.
The crash temporarily disrupted electric service for about 3, 500 homes and businesses in parts of Baxter and Fulton counties served by Salem-based North Arkansas Electric Cooperative. A smaller number of Entergy customers in Mountain Home were also affected briefly. Both companies have transmission lines at the dam’s powerhouse.
Sho-Me Power customers were not affected. The company serves nine electric cooperatives in Missouri and sells wholesale power to 17 municipal power systems and Fort Leonard Wood, an Army installation in Missouri.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
