UVALDE, Texas – A newlywed couple leaving their wedding ceremony in a helicopter died early Sunday morning when the helicopter crashed, according to a report from the Houstonian.
Will Byler, his wife, Bailee Ackerman Byler, and their pilot died in the crash, according to the Houstonian, the student newspaper for Sam Houston State University.
The newspaper reported that the Bylers were both in their senior year at the university.
Eric Smith, a friend of the Ackerman family, posted to Facebook early Sunday morning that the couple and the helicopter pilot had died in the crash after the ceremony.
Jacob Martinez, an individual working the event, shared video of the moment the couple took off in the helicopter.
The Uvalde County Sheriff's Office said it received a call from an aviation monitoring center about a possible downed aircraft in northwest Uvalde around midnight.
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, game wardens, Border Patrol agents, the Uvalde Volunteer Fire Department and Uvalde Emergency Medical Services arrived in the area of Chalk Bluff Park off of Highway 55 to help search for the helicopter.
Authorities located the crashed helicopter around daybreak, the Sheriff's Office said.
The San Antonio Fire Department deployed 10 members of its Technical Rescue Team to assist the Federal Aviation Administration with the investigation, but they returned to San Antonio Sunday night.
NTSB said in a tweet Sunday morning that the helicopter involved is a Bell 206B.
Officials with the NTSB said they would not release any information about the crash until Monday.
It is with deepest sadness that we announce the tragic passing of two Bearkats Will Byler (Agriculture Engineering...
Posted by The Houstonian on Sunday, November 4, 2018