Exact cause of helicopter crash still unknown

It may be a more than a month before investigators can say what caused Wednesday's helicopter crash in a Stoddard County cotton field, said emergency management director Bill Pippins Jr.

The craft went down near the rural community of Circle City, about four miles north of U.S. 60 on Highway N. The pilot, Joe D. Criddle, 41, of Houston, Miss., was found dead at the scene.

Criddle was spraying insecticide when the aircraft struck a nearby power line.

Two representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration arrived that afternoon from St. Louis to begin the investigation.

"They did not find anything last night that would lead them to preclude whether it was equipment or pilot error," Pippins said Thursday. "And they talked like it would be a month before they'd issue a statement on it."

Volunteers and emergency workers walked in a grid formation Wednesday night, looking for anything that may have fallen off the helicopter prior to its impact with the power line that could have caused Criddle to lose control.

"They took over 100 pictures with their camera," Pippins said of the FAA agents. "They were looking at the impact areas and at parts of the helicopter to see how far they were from the impact site."

The helicopter debris was removed from the site about 8:15 p.m. and taken to a hanger at the Malden airport for storage.

"They were going to go back down this morning and go over the pieces and parts to see if there are any signs of mechanical failure," Pippins said.