The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States released a preliminary report on Wednesday into the recent helicopter crash near Big Grand Cay, Abaco.

The report provides more details about what happened on July 4 when the helicopter crashed killing seven American passengers, including billionaire Chris Cline.

According to the report, at the time of the accident, the helicopter was operated as a personal flight and was used to transport two of the passengers for medical treatment.

The helicopter departed from Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) in West Palm Beach, Florida around 12:57 a.m. and a witness reported that it landed on the concrete pad at Big Grand Cay between 1:30 a.m. and 1:45 a.m. 

“After landing, the helicopter remained on the ground with the engines operating, while the passengers boarded. During the subsequent takeoff to the east, the witness reported that the helicopter climbed to about 30 to 40 feet and accelerated while in a nose-down attitude. He did not notice anything unusual while he observed the helicopter depart,” the report read.

Another witness, who was located about 1.6 nm southwest of the accident site, reported seeing the helicopter lift off and climb to between 40 and 50 feet above ground level.

According to the report, the witness then saw the helicopter rotated three to four times and heard a “whoosh, whoosh, whoosh” sound, and lost sight of the helicopter. The witness went out on his boat about 2:05 a.m. and searched the area where he thought the helicopter had crashed but was unable to locate it.

The helicopter was subsequently located by local residents sometime between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., about 1.2 nm north-northeast of the departure point.

The report pointed out that the aircraft was found inverted and the tail boom was separated from the aft fuselage and was recovered in multiple pieces. All five main rotor blades were separated but recovered. 

The tail rotor assembly, which was also separated was subsequently recovered. All four tail rotor blades were separated, and one tail rotor blade was not recovered. 

The recovered wreckage was retained for further examination, to include examination of the airframe, engines, flight controls, seats and restraints.