SEVIERVILLE, Tenn.—A sightseeing helicopter crashed near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee, killing all five people aboard, officials said.
The Bell 206 helicopter crashed Monday around 3:30 p.m. near Sevierville, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said in an email. Officials said the tourist helicopter was destroyed by fire after the crash.
“There’s not much left of the helicopter,” Pigeon Forge Police Chief Jack Baldwin said. “It’s pretty much gone from the fire.”
Baldwin said the helicopter appeared to have come down the side of a mountain and crashed at the foot of it.
“There’s a little bit of the tail fin of the helicopter, and that’s about all that’s left, that and the console, that’s about it,” he said.
