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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Delaney, Jezek and a physician went to attend to Clark. The girl was drowsy and vomiting, and the three rolled her to her side. Those at the party told Jezek she had not taken drugs. Jezek noted that Clark did not have an “overwhelming smell of alcohol” on her.

Shane Lerner, Clark’s boyfriend, reported that Clark had called him around 10:30 p.m. She had been drinking but did not seem ill, Lerner said in the report. Her health was “phenomenal.” He said that Clark, who had plans to attend medical school, had good health. She’d had only a stomach bug on the day before the trip.

Lerner said whatever had made Clark sick on July 3 must have happened suddenly.

While the three tended to Clark, Jezek said, Kameron became suddenly ill. She was drowsy and vomiting but did not have slurred speech and did not appear to have as severe symptoms as Clark, Jezek said.

“At that point, Mr. Cline became concerned and wanted to get the 2 young adults to the United States for medical treatment,” the documents report.

Jezek had vomit on her clothes, so she went back to her bungalow to change. She did not make a diagnosis or know why the girls became ill, she told authorities.

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Immediately upon take-off, warning sounds filled the cockpit, cockpit recording transcripts show.

“There was a fatal accident in the U.K., and this is exactly what happened there,” Painter, who is from Great Britain, told Jude.

Around the same time Painter had spoken, the helicopter lights started spinning and vanished, according to witnesses.

Hogan watched as the craft turned west, climbed 3 to 4 stories and nosedived, less than one minute after take-off. He notified the U.S. Coast Guard around 2 a.m. and obtained Cline’s medical information from Cline’s son.

The recording did not identify which accident Painter meant. However, the New Orleans Advocate reported that nine months prior to the Cline crash, an Agusta helicopter leaving from a professional English soccer team’s stadium started spinning shortly after takeoff and crashed, killing the club’s owner and four others on board.

Investigators in that case blamed problems in the link between the helicopter’s tail rotor and the pilot’s controls, the newspaper reported.

A witness to the Cline wreckage said that the wheels on the helicopter were still extended, indicating that Jude had not retracted the gear while in transitional lift.

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