Investigators have found evidence that a bird may have struck a helicopter before it crashed into a Louisiana swamp last month, killing eight people, including a North Texas pilot.
A report issued Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board doesn't conclude that a bird strike caused the deadly crash near Morgan City on Jan. 4.
But tests on the wreckage of the Sikorsky S-76C found microscopic remains of a hawk-like bird on the pilot's side of the chopper's windscreen. Investigators also found parts of feathers under a windscreen seal and in an engine.
The NTSB says its probe continues.
Vyarl Martin, 46, of Hurst, died in the crash.
He and another pilot were flying seven workers to a Shell Oil Co. platform in the Gulf of Mexico when the helicopter went down in a marsh about 100 miles southwest of New Orleans. The crash left a lone survivor critically injured.
