Monday, Jan. 23
January 23, 2012Kate Cleo Cherry Ivey
January 26, 2012The pilot and passenger of a single-engine helicopter were killed Thursday when the Robinson R44 aircraft crashed and burned in marshland about 13 miles southwest of Morgan City.
Jason McKean, 40, of Amite, and Lanny Ledet, 44, of Gheens, were pronounced dead due to blunt-force injuries at 2:10 p.m. Thursday, according to the St. Mary Parish Coroner’s Office.
Federal investigators looking into what caused the crash said the engine was still operating when the helicopter crashed around 9 a.m.
“Every indication is the engine was still turning, so power was being delivered to the propellers,” said Bridget Serchak, a public affairs officer with the National Transportation Safety Board.
The helicopter departed from the Houma-Terrebonne Airport at approximately 8:30 a.m. and was scheduled to land at the same airport, investigators said.
At 9 a.m., the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office received word that the helicopter went down in the Belle Island area, according to a spokesman with the sheriff’s office.
Wreckage is still being recovered, but no air traffic control tapes, radar system or flight plans were recovered at the scene, according to investigators.
The helicopter, which was owned by Cenac Marine Services LLC, clipped trees on its way down and left a two-foot-deep gash in the ground, investigators said.
The pilot was operating above the Visual Flight Rules weather threshold, which indicates visibility, according to investigators.
The NTSB will post a preliminary report to its website by next week and a factual report within 9 to 12 months and issue the crash’s probable cause within a year and a half.
Ledet managed the Golden Ranch Plantation in Gheens.
McKean was the helicopter’s pilot and flew aircrafts for Chet Morrison Contractors, although this was not a business trip for the Houma-based company, according to The Associated Press.
