3 taken to hospitals after helicopter searching for marijuana plants crashes

6/06/07
By Heath Hooper,
Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer

Three men were injured Tuesday after a state helicopter looking for marijuana plants crashed in Polk County.

Capt. Kelly McClendon of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Cpl. David Doehla with the Georgia State Patrol and Joe Zebeau, a retired corporal with the GSP, were airlifted to Atlanta hospitals after their Bell Jet Ranger Model 406 helicopter crashed while on patrol about 2:45 p.m.

Click here to see a video from the crash site.

Doehla, the pilot, was in critical but stable condition at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta on Tuesday evening, a Grady hospital spokesman said, while McClendon was in stable condition at Atlanta Medical Center, an AMC hospital spokeswoman said.

Zebeau was also at Grady with non-life-threatening injuries, a GSP spokesperson said.

The three were on patrol as part of the Georgia Governor’s Task Force searching for illegal marijuana plants growing in Polk County, said Al Sharp, deputy chief with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

A Georgia Forestry bulldozer cleared a path to the crash site in a wooded area on the west side of Polk County near Esom Hill. The fire was caused by the crash.

The Task Force is made up of state and local law enforcement officers whose purpose is drug eradication in Georgia, said Senior Trooper Larry Schnall, with the GSP.

Cause of the crash had not been determined Tuesday evening, as officials awaited arrival of investigation teams from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The helicopter’s occupants “didn’t know what happened,” said Cpl. Johnny Moats of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, who was on the phone with McClendon shortly after the crash occurred. “He said it just went down.”

The crash occurred in woods off Culp Lake Road in Esom Hill.

John Branch, with Polk County Fire and Rescue, was one of the first responders. “It was just scattered,” he said. “There wasn’t much left of it.”

The aircraft was engulfed in flames following the crash, causing a small woods fire. A Georgia Forestry Commission crew plowed a break around the fire to contain it.
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I have real trouble feeling anything other than a deep sense of HAHAHAHAHAHA when I read this story. All that trouble. A chopper crash that almost cost the lives of its three occupants, which will be very costly to state tax payers in both medical bills and the cost of replacing such an expensive piece of equipment, as well as costly to the families of these people in terms of the toll having serious injuries can take, and a forest fire that could have gotten serious because of the drought. All for what? A few potential pot plants, which if left alone, would have never started a fire, or caused serious injury or death to anyone, or cost anyone any money that they weren't willing to spend?

See, all the trouble with marijuana comes in the form of police officers and the retarded fucking laws they enforce.