NTSB Releases Preliminary Report On Tahlequah Helicopter Crash

NewsOn6.com

TAHLEQUAH, OK -- The National Transportation Safety Board has released a preliminary report into a fatal helicopter crash near Tahlequah last week.

A NTSB investigator says the helicopter took off from a rural residence in the early morning hours of October 14 and crashed five minutes later in an open field three miles from the Tahlequah airport.

The pilot and his passenger were killed instantly. They were identified as 26-year-old Mark Mahaney and 20-year-old Darci Scraper, both of Tahlequah.

The NTSB says the helicopter caught fire on impact.

Read the NTSB preliminary report.

The report says the pilot was flying to the Tahlequah airport to meet a friend.  The report says when the helicopter failed to arrive, the friend left the airport and did not report the overdue helicopter.

10/16/2009 Related story: Focus Turns To Pilot In Deadly Tahlequah Helicopter Crash

The NTSB's preliminary crash reports do not contain any speculation or conclusions about what caused the crash.

Those will be contained in subsequent reports which usually take many months to complete.