Searchers Find Critical Clue to Life Flight Crash

Searchers Find Critical Clue to Life Flight Crash


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Sandra Yi reporting Search and rescue teams have found what could be a critical clue to last Saturday's LifeFlight helicopter crash.

They made this discovery after combing the hillside where the chopper went down.

Fifty volunteers showed up this morning to scour the mountain.. All of them hoping to find the piece, and get closure.

Search and rescue teams returned to the site of last Saturday's LifeFlight helicopter crash. This time, to try and recover a critical piece of evidence. A metal piece called a trunnion.

Searcher: "WHAT THEY BELIEVED HAPPENED IS THAT THIS PIECE FRACTURED RIGHT IN THE SPINE AND CAME LOOSE FROM THE TAIL ROTOR."

Peggy Faulkner/Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office: "THE GENTLEMAN FROM THE FAA DESCRIBED IT AS ONE OF THE LAST PIECES OF THE PUZZLE THAT WILL HELP PUT EVERYTHING TOGETHER."

This afternoon, two searchers found the trunnion in a grassy area up the mountain, eight hundred yards east of the crash site. It was broken in two pieces.

Darren Hunsaker/Salt Lake County Search and Rescue: "WE WERE JUST ELATED, WE ALL SCREAMED FOR JOY. IT WAS A GREAT FIND. WE CONSIDER IT FINDING A RESOLUTION OF WHY THE HELICOPTER CRASHED AND WHY ONE OF OUR FAVORITE PILOTS WAS KILLED

The Federal Aviation Administration now has the two pieces.

The F-A-A and the National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating the cause of the crash.

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