Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman Byler, seniors at Sam Houston State University, married Saturday evening at the Byler family ranch before departing on the helicopter in front of family and friends. Authorities received a call reporting a possible downed aircraft around midnight Sunday, according to the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office.
The helicopter crashed into the side of a hill in northwest Uvalde County, about 100 miles west of San Antonio.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. But first, investigators have to recover the wreckage from the crash site, a task made difficult by the terrain and the remote location — roughly 4 to 5 miles from the nearest state road, NTSB air safety investigator Craig Hatch said.
“Getting back there with a trailer and truck and people to lift the helicopter is going to be difficult,” he said in a Monday news conference.
Because no roads with lights lead to the crash site, rescue crews waited until daybreak to reach it, said Rachel Kellner with the Texas Game Warden station. Kellner said she and her partner had to climb over a fence and walk up the side of a mountain to reach the helicopter. When they arrived, family members who had reached the site in a private helicopter were already there, she said.
“The difficulty is the terrain,” she said. “The helicopter is not stable at all.”
News of the deaths was first reported by the university’s independent student newspaper, The Houstonian.
Lawrence’s stepdaughter, Amilyn Willard, told the station he had been a captain in the army and fought in Vietnam.
“I spoke w/the step daughter of the pilot who says the flight path was routine for her stepdad and he had flown it many times,” station reporter Charly Edsitty tweeted. “The family is in shock over the accident and knew something was wrong when they didn’t hear from anyone hours later.”