Crews working to repair tower damaged in Aurora helicopter crash
Crews were working into the evening Friday to remove the top one-third of a radio tower in Aurora that was damaged Wednesday night during a helicopter crash that killed four people.
Workers were attempting to remove the necessary support wires so a construction helicopter could lift off part of the tower to make repairs.
Officials believe a medical helicopter may have struck the support wires close to midnight Wednesday before crashing into a nearby field northeast of Eola Road and Liberty Street on Aurora's far east side.
The crash took the lives of flight nurse William Mann, 31, of Chicago; pilot Del Waugh, 69, of Carmel, Ind.; paramedic Ronald Battiato, 41, of Peotone; and Kirstin Blockinger, 14 months, of Leland, who was being transported from Valley West Hospital in Sandwich to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Terry Williams said investigators were working Friday at Poplar Grove Airport, near Rockford, sifting through the helicopter fragments and trying to determine what caused the crash.
Thursday night's voluntary evacuation of a nearby apartment complex was extended to 6 p.m. Friday as crews worked. Residents were allowed to retrun to their homes Friday evening, but residents in the northern perimeter of the Amli Apartment Complex to evacuate for about four hours as crews continue to work Saturday.
"After some preliminary talks with the structural engineer (Thursday), he did say the damage did pose a possible hazard of that tower falling over," Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said.
The tower is roughly 734 feet tall and is owned by Elgin Broadcasting Co.
Safety board investigators also are attempting to learn whether the antennae tower's lighting system was functioning at the time of the crash.
According to the Federal Communications Commission's code of federal regulations, the owner of any antennae structure is required to check the status of the lights at least once every 24 hours. Tower owners also are required to "provide and properly maintain an automatic alarm system designed to detect any failure of such lights and to provide indication of such failure to the owner."
A receptionist at Elgin Broadcasting Co. said Friday that WBIG owner Rick Jakle was unavailable to answer media questions about the tower and instead referred reporters to a written statement issued early Friday.
Thursday morning, however, Jakle appeared on the Spike O'Dell Radio Program on WGN 720-AM and O'Dell asked Jakle if staff would be warned by an alarm if the strobe lights were not functioning.
"I think we would. I'm not familiar with the engineering part of that tower but I think we would," Jakle told O'Dell. "I honestly can't tell you for sure."
In Jakle's written statement Friday he said station general manager Steve Martin "saw the strobe light on the tower working as of 7 p.m. Wednesday night."
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