(January 17, 2008)-- Investigators are trying to determine whether a deadly Navy helicopter crash near Corpus Christi involved the chopper hitting a broadcast tower.
Three crewmembers on the MH-53 Sea Dragon died in Wednesday night's fiery accident, while a fourth is hospitalized in critical condition.
KEDT Television was knocked off the air because of damage to the tower, but the station resumed broadcasting Thursday on lower power.
South Texas Public Broadcasting System president Don Dunlap says he believes the chopper hit the tower about 50 feet from the top based on what he saw using binoculars.
Dunlap says the beacon on top of the 970-foot-tall tower had been knocked off.
He told The Associated Press that the fog was extremely thick when he arrived at the scene Thursday night, and that he couldn't see 200 feet around the tower.
Names of the victims weren't immediately released.
Conditions were foggy in November 2004 in Central Texas when a 4th Infantry Division UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter struck a support cable on the 1,800-foot KXXV television tower while on a flight to the Red River Army Depot in Texarkana.
The helicopter crashed into a field near Bruceville-Eddy, killing all seven soldiers aboard including Brig. Gen. Charles B. Allen, the 4th Infantry Division’s assistant commander.
An Army report determined that the crash resulted from the decision of the pilots to fly under visual flight rules in conditions that warranted the use of instruments.
The pilots took off in foggy conditions without filing an instrument flight plan, but then requested an instrument flight plan minutes before the crash.
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