Witness reacts to fatal Sevier County helicopter crash

COSBY, Tenn. (WVLT) - One is dead and one is critically injured following a helicopter crash just outside Cosby on the Sevier County - Cocke County line, officials with the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office told WVLT News.

The crash happened just after 2 p.m. Wednesday. WVLT News was on scene and spoke to a witness who said he lives less than a tenth of a mile from the crash site.

“When something like that hits the bottom of a mountain that you your house is attached to you know it,” Mark Houge said. “It shakes windows it rattles things and you know it has to be something big. A meteor? No, but a helicopter? We saw yes.”

Houge told WVLT News that the helicopter came straight down.

“I saw... the elevation of the helicopter and it wasn’t going straight up or to the side. It was going straight down,” Houge said.

The area where the crash occurred was a rural one, but Houge said he was grateful it landed where it did- in a place help could come to assist. Houge said that something as small as a flat tire can cause a stir.

“You know, if someone had a flat tire, that’s a big deal to us,” he said. “You’ve got to stop and help them.”

Houge wasn’t able to offer much help as he witnessed the crash.

“As I was coming out of my house, you saw it just streak across, you couldn’t get to it fast enough,” he said. “It was a helpless feeling watching that.”

Officials have not been able to confirm who owns the helicopter, but they did tell WVLT News that no one else was on board during the crash.

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