Investigators study helicopter crash debris in Tennessee

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. -- Investigators on Tuesday examined the wreckage of a sightseeing helicopter that crashed and burned near Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee but said it was too early to tell what caused it to go down.

Luke Schiada, a senior investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said there was evidence the Bell 206 helicopter made contact with the top of a ridge on the side of a mountain when it crashed Monday afternoon, killing four passengers and the pilot.

Officials said the tourist helicopter, which was built in 1977 and operated by Smoky Mountain Helicopters, was destroyed by fire after the crash.

Pigeon Forge police on Tuesday identified those killed as the pilot, Jason Dahl, 38, of Sevierville; and four passengers, Johna Morvant, 49, of Kodak, Tennessee; Peyton Rasmussen, 22, of Huntersville, North Carolina; Michael Glenn Mastalez, 21, of Prosper, Texas; and Parker Rasmussen, 18, also of Huntersville.

The Rasmussens' father, Scott Rasmussen of Huntersville, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that Mastalez was his daughter Peyton's boyfriend. Peyton and her brother Parker were visiting Morvant, their mother, family members said.

"My daughter was 22 years old and the most loving, softest-hearted daughter in the whole world," Rasmussen said. "She was a very, very, very loving daughter."

Parker Rasmussen was being home-schooled, and Peyton Rasmussen was attending classes to become a medical technician, he said.

"Parker was kind of a quiet type kid," their grandfather, Butch Rasmussen, told the newspaper. "Peyton was the type of person who had a posse with her all the time, had a lot of friends."

The family was originally from North Platte, Nebraska.

Schiada said the tour route the helicopter was on indicated it was on a 12-minute flight, and it was the second flight of the day for the pilot in the helicopter. The NTSB said it would be reviewing how the helicopter was loaded, the aircraft's maintenance records, the pilot's background and the wind conditions at the time it crashed, he said.

"The fact that the wreckage was consumed by the fire does make things more complicated," Schiada said at a news conference.

The NTSB will present a preliminary report on the facts of the crash on its website by the end of next week, Schiada said, but an investigative report containing the probable cause of the crash could take a year or more.

The crash site is less than a mile from a large outlet mall in Sevierville and adjacent to a neighborhood off the main tourist drag. The site is about 3 miles from Dolly Parton's Dollywood theme park. No one on the ground was hurt.

Shawn Matern said he was inside his parents' house Monday when he heard a loud boom.

"That's when we came out and saw the second explosion right before our eyes," he said.

A man who answered the phone at Smoky Mountain Helicopters declined to comment and hung up.