Authorities say VFR flight into IMC appears the culprit in a spectacular pre-dawn helicopter crash in late September. Both pilot and passenger were killed when their Robinson R44 II crashed through the roof of a home on approach to Kenosha Airport, Wis. September 21 at 5:30 a.m. The aircraft sliced through the roof, fell down the stairway of the two-story home, exited the front door, and ended up on a neighbor’s driveway. The five-member family inside the home at the time of the crash was not injured. The flight had originated at the Horseshoe Casino heliport in Whiting, Ind., at 4:30 a.m. Weather at Kenosha at the time of the crash was reported as 100 feet overcast in mist, visibility three-quarters of a mile, temperature 17, dewpoint 16. Minutes before the crash, a Wisconsin State trooper said he heard the helicopter overhead at an estimated altitude of 500 feet six miles south of Kenosha. He estimated the forward visibility at his location at less than 500 feet.
At press time, toxicology reports on the pilot were pending.