Searchers comb Middle Georgia forest for missing helicopter with 3 people on board
Rescue teams from across the region were searching Thursday for a helicopter that went missing late Wednesday in Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge about 20 miles north of Macon, law enforcement officials said.
The crash site was located around noon Thursday deep in the woods in area below Ga. Highway 83, which runs between Forsyth and Monticello east of the Ocmulgee River, officials said.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said the helicopter was a Robinson R66, a five-seat chopper capable of flying 160 miles an hour and traveling up to 400 miles. The helicopter’s place of departure and intended destination were not immediately available.
A woman who lives near the crash site told The Telegraph that it had been raining “pretty bad” about 8:30 Wednesday night when her husband heard a low-flying aircraft over their house and sensed something was wrong.
“It was flying really low,” April Seabolt, 42, said.
One law enforcement source said there were possibly three people aboard the chopper — a pair of pilots and a passenger — and that the flight may have originated in Florida.
There was no immediate word on whether those on board survived. Jasper County Sheriff’s deputies, Civil Air Patrol, county fire and rescue and other first responders set up a command center at Enon Baptist Church.
For more on this developing story, return to macon.com.
This story was originally published September 16, 2021 at 1:31 PM.