PIGEON FORGE — A sightseeing helicopter crashed on a wooded ridge behind a Pigeon Forge outlet mall Monday afternoon, killing all five people on board and sparking a fire that burned into the night.
"There's a little bit of the tail fin of the helicopter and that's about all that's left," said Pigeon Forge Police Chief Jack Baldwin. "That and the console."
Residents who live near the crash site described a puttering noise coming from the aircraft's rotor as it went down at about 3:30 p.m.
Witnesses heard screams from the wreckage, and saw one man roll out of the helicopter before he died.
The Bell 206 helicopter belonged to a touring company out of Sevierville, Baldwin said. He did not know which company owned it, who was on board or where it was headed.
The bodies have been taken to the Regional Forensic Center in Knoxville to be identified at the request of the Federal Aviation Administration, Baldwin said.
The chief said local authorities would remain at the scene overnight until investigators with the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board arrived in the morning.
The crash site, off Rainbow Road, is separated from a residential street by the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River. Spectators were still gathered in yards and back porches along the water's edge to watch the fire burn five hours after the crash.
By then, the fire had moved to the north along the ridge, away from the wreckage. A spotlight lit up the remains of the helicopter, which had been marked with pink flags by investigators.
Wilma Law was on her back porch when she first heard a puttering from the rotor that "didn't sound right," and then watched the tail of the helicopter disappear behind the tree line.
Law and her daughter, Kristy, who called E-911, followed the billowing black smoke to the crash site. They heard screams for help, Kristy Law said.
Shawn Matern was inside his house when he heard a loud boom. He said he saw the helicopter on fire and a man "more or less rolling out" of the aircraft.
"He was on fire … and rolling around," Matern said. "My neighbor actually went across the river to actually check on him.
"A few minutes later he was gone."
The neighbor, who said he was an EMT, declined to speak to reporters because the event was too traumatic.
Matern said he heard another person screaming for help, but he or she was trapped inside the helicopter.
"There was nothing you could do for them, you know, because they were too mangled up in there," he said. "They were burning alive."
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