NC - Rescue workers searching for missing helicopter

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Rescue workers searching for missing helicopter Staff Reports Updated: Sep 7 at 11:25

BALSAM - Rescue workers were searching Thursday morning for a North Carolina Forest Service helicopter that may have been forced to make an emergency landing near the Blue Ridge Parkway in thick fog.

Capt. Jeff Augram, with the Asheville Regional Airport's public safety department, confirmed Thursday the N.C. Forest Service had been in radio contact with the pilot earlier in the day.

"We do have reports that the pilot had to set down," Augram said just before 10:30 a.m. Forest Service officials were trying to reestablish radio contact Thursday morning.

Regional Forester John Pearson said two people were aboard the helicopter. The crew was headed to a conservation field day in Haywood County.

Pearson said at 11 a.m. that officials had not been able to reach the crew by radio for about an hour. That could be due to the terrain.

"This would be a routine type of thing except we still can't make contact," Pearson said.

The helicopter is equipped with an emergency transmitter, but by 11 a.m., there had been no reports of any signals from the helicopter, Pearson.

The helicopter was apparently on its way from Macon County to Haywood County. Pearson said the pilot was experienced, but he declined to release any names.

Haywood County rescue workers began searching for the aircraft after dispatchers received five separate reports of a possible helicopter crash.

http://www.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?news&20000907_n5.txt

-- Doris (reaper1@mindspring.com), September 07, 2000


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