re: Three LSU Phi Mu's die in helicopter crash with billionaire Chris Cline

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The helicopter carrying billionaire and part-time Palm Beach County resident Christopher Cline and six others was in the air only about a minute before it went into a spin, dropped 50 feet, and slammed into the Atlantic Ocean on July 4 near Cline's private island in the Bahamas, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report posted Wednesday.

The report does not provide any hints about what might have brought down the corporate helicopter, killing Cline, his daughter and three of her friends, and two pilots.

It does say the 15-passenger Augusta s.p.a AW139 was found upside down, with its tail boom separated from the fuselage and in several pieces. It says all five main rotor blades and all four tail blades had come off.

While the NTSB report doesn't address this, Bahamian authorities said earlier that some of the damage could have come on impact with the water or during the process of pulling the 7½ ton helicopter out of 16 feet of water.

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