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Herald photo by Lisa Majors-Duff
A N.C. Highway Patrol helicopter crew prepares to take off Sept. 7 from a command post established earlier in the day at the Jackson/Haywood county line to coordinate efforts to locate a Forest Service helicopter, its pilot and crew chief. The helicopter was last heard from at 9:05 a.m. last Thursday, when Pilot Tim Newman radioed that he was experiencing heavy fog and was preparing to land. A day and a half later, the crash site was spotted near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Waynesville overlook in Haywood County. Some 200 volunteers from Jackson County participated in the search.Everyone wanted to find them alive.As they began to hear that a helicopter might have crashed in the Balsam area, they gathered, hundreds of people who were ready to go anywhere, look everywhere, until the pilot and his crew chief were found. A day and a half later, after more than 27 hours of hoping for the best, a married couple who wanted to help with the search found the crash site and discovered the truth - the men were dead. Pilot Tim Newman, 40, of Franklin, and his new crew chief, Mike Fossett, 46, who'd just moved to the area from Fayetteville, left their Macon County N.C. Forest Service headquarters Thursday (Sept. 7) morning. They were traveling to Haywood County to do a fire prevention display for about 600 school children. By 9:05 a.m., the Huey helicopter and its passengers had reached Balsam Gap and extreme fog conditions. "They radioed in to Haywood County and said they were experiencing heavy fog and were going to land," Robin Carter, Forest Service public information officer, said. "We didn't hear from them after that." The cause for concern was not immediate, Carter said, since both men were experinced flyers. In fact, Newman had served for several years as a helicopter pilot for firefighting operations in the Rockies before relocating his family to Franklin in October 1999 to take a job with the N.C. Forest Service. The helicopter, on lease from the military, underwent strict maintenance checks after a certain number of flight hours. It had checked out following a review in March, she said. Then the 911 calls began to come in. "The callers said they saw a big yellow helicopter flying low and then they heard an explosion," Carter said. "We had calls from as low as Freeman Gas and as high as the gap," Johnny Nicholson, Balsam fire chief, said. "We really had no idea where it was, and it was so foggy." Calls from Haywood County concentrated in the Saunooke/Barber Orchard area, he said. Department of Transportation crews working on U.S. 74 at Balsam Gap were able to provide eyewitness reports, Carter said. As plans for the search began to be formulated, volunteer service providers from 18 different agencies in both Jackson and Haywood counties climbed toward Balsam Gap and reported to the command post at the entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway. On the Jackson County side, nearly 200 people participated in the ground search from both the Jackson County and Glenville-Cashiers rescue squads, the Sheriff's Department, as well as fire department personnel from Cullowhee, Savannah, Cashiers, Canada and Qualla. "Sylva (firefighters) provided backup for our fire calls," Nicholson said. With fog continuing to impede an aerial search, crews took to the woods and roads with hopes of spotting the helicopter. Nicholson and Ben Clawson, captain of the Jackson County Rescue Squad, coordinated the efforts of nearly 70 people from the fire department on Woodfin Road. "The Haywood County Rescue Squad and the Forest Service were searching over there, so we started searching in the Cabin Flats section and on the old Champion property at Sugar Loaf," Clawson said. As more people volunteered to assist in the search, a new command post was needed. Officials with the N.C. Wildlife Resouces Commission offered the use of their fish hatchery just inside the Haywood County line, Carter said. By 10:30 Thursday morning, enough fog had burned off to allow search helicopters with the N.C. Highway Patrol and the Forest Service to take to the air. And as news of the possible crash began to circulate, more people placed 911 calls to report what they had seen and heard. "As the media attention picked up, we began to get a lot of calls and leads from the community," Carter said. "That was really wonderful, but it did spread out our search area." What had been a target of 5 square miles now included closer to 20 square miles, she said. As darkness fell, search tactics changed. The N.C. National Guard sent Apache helicopters in to conduct an infrared reconnaissance mission with hopes of picking up a heat source on the ground, said Carter. But a storm system coming from the west grounded the aircraft at about 10:30 p.m. Meanwhile, a team of 12 search dogs and their handlers were part of the nearly 175 searchers who remained in the woods throughout the night in Haywood County, Carter said. Search crews on foot with hand-held infrared sensors picked up a large heat source, giving all a cause for excited anticipation, she said. But when they followed it to its source, instead of finding a yellow Huey, they found a rock containing iron that had soaked up the sun's rays throughout the day. In Jackson County, ground crews were called out of the woods during the night and drivers were sent out to cover the back roads. "We did a lot of driving, stopping and listening," Nicholson said. Answering a request for help to the Area 10 Rescue Association, volunteers began to arrive on the scene Friday morning from Swain, Graham, Cherokee, Clay and Transylvania counties, Clawson said. An additional 13 volunteers brought four-wheelers and ATVs to search areas where there are no roads, he said. Friday morning's weather conditions were similar to those of the day before, and once again heavy fog prevented search helicopters from flying early, Carter said. So the search continued on the ground, and the calls continued to come in from those who said they'd seen the helicopter the day before. An as-of-yet unidentified man and his wife, who reported being familiar with the area, had volunteered to help in the search. At about 11 that morning, they reported finding the crash site and attempted to lead Forest Service personnel back to the site. But they were having difficulty finding it again, Carter said. At the same time the Forest Service was searching from the Blue Ridge Parkway up the mountain, about 20 members of the Jackson County Rescue Squad were searching the Bluetown section of Balsam from Timber Line Road down, Nicholson said. "We brought in our (Global Positioning Satellite) receivers and were able to provide coordinates for the helicopter," Clawson said. Tim Newman's supervisor was flying the Forest Service helicopter, but thick foliage was making it difficult for him to see anything, Carter said. As he started to fly away, he crossed another ridge line and spotted the crash site, she said. "We are extremely thankful to the couple for leading us in the right direction," Carter said. "As it turns out they were less than 2 miles away." As soon as it was determined that the crash site was located in Haywood County, all Jackson County search support was called off, Mike Ensley, Jackson County Emergency Management coordinator, said. "The helicopter gave the Signel 100,' which means the site was located," Clawson said. "At that point we pulled all our people out of the woods." A recovery effort was under taken after Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board officials gave the go ahead to remove the bodies, said Carter. After cutting through the undergrowth for an hour, rescue crews finally reached the helicopter, she said. The bodies were taken Friday evening to Haywood Regional Hospital and then transported to the state medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill. Preliminary autopsy reports indicated that both Newman and Fossett were killed on impact, she said. "There were signs of fire around the crash site, but the medical examiner confirmed that they died from injuries associated with the crash, not the fire," said Carter. Forest Service officials expect to receive a preliminary report on the crash from the NTSB this week, she said. Until then they have grounded their fleet of helicopters. "We grounded our helicopters for safety and precautionary reasons," she said. "We don't think there was a mechanical problem, and we'd like to get our helicopters back in the air in time for the fall fire season." Until federal investigators complete their inspection near the Blue Ridge Parkway, National Park Service personnel are providing security at the crash site. Complete findings on the cause of the crash could take as long as six months, said Carter. "This is such a tragic loss," said Carter, who is headquartered in Raleigh. "While I was in the mountains, I heard one of the teachers where the men were going saying she felt responsible. I think everyone feels a sense of responsibility when something like this happens, but it was just one of those tragic things." Carter said she also felt bad for the Haywood County teachers who "had to explain to a lot of children why the helicopter was not coming." Donations from several area businesses - including Black Rock Trading, Hill Top Grocery, McDonald's and Ryan's Steakhouse - kept the searchers on their feet, said Nicholson. The Rescue Squad Ladies' Auxiliary also provided sustenance, he said. |