Two construction crew members working on Ameren Illinois transmission lines were killed Aug. 7 when their Hughes 369D helicopter struck an overhead line and crashed onto a docked barge on the Mississippi River near Alton, Ill., authorities said. 

The crash occurred about 200 yards downstream of Melvin Price Locks and Dam (Lock and Dam 26) and ignited a fire on the barge that was extinguished within about an hour but closed river traffic, according to local officials.

A spokesperson for the utility said a contractor and its subcontractor were “repairing and replacing tower lighting and marker balls” on transmission lines in Madison County, Ill., and that there were no power outages related to the incident. 

The St. Charles County, Mo., medical examiner on Aug. 8 identified the victims as Nicholas R. Fulton, 35, of Salem, Mo., and Michael C. Curry, 37, of Ashley, Ill. Local media reported Fulton as a vice president of Salem-based Excel Helicopters LLC. In a social media posting, contractor J.F. Electric Inc., Edwardsville, Ill., confirmed “a serious incident … involving one of our employees and a subcontractor,” and their deaths, but did not release names or further details. The contractor said it is “cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities as they conduct their review of the incident.”

The Ameren spokesperson declined to confirm either firm as a utility contractor or release further accident details, but said it “will cooperate with the investigation,” in an emailed statement to ENR. 

The crash occurred about 200 yards downstream of Melvin Price Locks and Dam on the Mississippi River at Alton, Ill., on Aug. 7, when a utility helicopter hit a power line and crashed onto a barge, killing two workers, authorities said.  Image courtesy of Google Earth

The Federal Aviation Administration said the helicopter crashed onto a barge at about 11:05 a.m., and the National Transportation Safety Board is leading the accident investigation. Authorities said the barge was carrying ethylene glycol, but no injuries were reported on the vessel and no river pollution was detected. A nearby towboat used a water cannon to douse the fire, authorities said.

The U.S. Coast Guard initially closed the Upper Mississippi River to vessel traffic between mile markers 199 and 201 following the crash, reopening it the night of Aug. 7 with a safety zone extending 450 ft from shore between mile markers 199.5 and 200.5.

Federal investigators are examining factors including aircraft condition, wire-marking work practices and operating procedures for utility helicopter operations. Preliminary findings are typically released within weeks, with a final report taking months.

Meanwhile, Ameren announced earlier this month that the Illinois Commerce Commission has approved it to start construction later this year on 380 miles of 345-kilovolt transmission lines, three new substations and upgrades to five existing substations across 13 counties as part of a $1.6-billion upgrade.