A newlywed couple, Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman hopped into their family’s helicopter to be carried away to honeymoon, immediately after their wedding, when the aircraft crashed into a hill killing them both, and their pilot.
The Texas couple, who were seniors at Sam Houston State University, had taken off in the helicopter from their ceremony which was held at Will’s family ranch on Saturday. Elated guests cheered on the aircraft as it lifted into the Texas night sky.
Loved ones waved light ropes in joy as it began to lift and hover above the trees. However, about a mile and change outside of the ranch, tragedy struck and the doomed helicopter ‘crashed into the side of a hill,’ according to wedding guest Eric Smith, who took to Facebook with the news.
‘The pilot, Jerry, was also on board. There were no survivors,’ Smith added.
The helicopter crashed reportedly sometime after midnight.
Smith described the soiree as a fairy tale wedding, and said that the couple were surrounded by friends and family as they departed into the sky.
They crashed outside of Uvalde, Texas the groom’s grandfather, William Byler confirmed to ABC13.
They located the wreckage just around daybreak.
The crash was confirmed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), who tweeted on Sunday morning that investigators were looking into the crash of a Bell 206B helicopter in Uvalde, a city roughly 80 miles west of San Antonio.
The NTSB said they would not release further details on the crash until Monday.
