AW139 Crash in Bahamas - 7 Killed

[Airbubba]

Originally Posted by FIRESYSOK

Sounds like there was only one pilot and a mechanic on board at the time. And not the ‘regular’ pilot, possibly. But that’s all my guesswork from reading here.

There were two pilots on board, Geoff Painter and David Jude, their backgrounds are discussed earlier in this thread. Despite the repeated references in the local media, it appears that there was no 'mechanic' on board and one does not show up in the lists of fatalities from various sources.

From The Palm Beach Post:

The operator of a Palm Beach Gardens helicopter service was piloting the multi-million-dollar chopper that crashed in the Bahamas on July 4, killing himself and six others, including coal billionaire and part-time northern Palm Beach County resident Christopher Cline, authorities said Saturday.

Geoffrey Painter, 52, and David Jude, 57, also killed in the crash, operated Cloud 9 Helicopters, based at the North County Airport, according to the company’s web page and state corporate records.

Bahamian authorities initially had suggested Jude, a West Virginia and Juno Beach resident who is one of Cline’s regular corporate pilots, was at the controls of the Agusta AW139 that dropped into shallow waters near Grand Cay, about 115 miles northeast of Palm Beach, and that the seventh person was an unidentified “Florida mechanic.”

But on Saturday, the Royal Bahamas Police Force posted a list of all seven victims, and listed Painter as the pilot.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/2...hed-in-bahamas

Here is the list of victims released yesterday by the Royal Bahamas Police Force:

UPDATE Saturday 12.20pm: Police have officially identified the seven people who were killed in Thursday’s helicopter crash:

(1) Geoffrey Lee Painter DOB 30-10-66 of Barnes Staple, United Kingdom (Pilot)

(2) Kameron Nicole Cline DOB 21-03-97 of Washington, DC

(3) Brittney Layne Searson DOB 16-08-97 of Palm Beach, Florida

(4) Jillian Nicole Clarke DOB 07-10-96 Los Angeles, Califonia

(5) Davis [sic] Jude DOB 02-12-62 of Kentucky

(6) Wykyle Delaney Lee DOB 18-06-96 of Washington, DC

(7) Christopher Cline DOB 05-07-58 of New York.