Copter in Bahamas crash is recovered

HAVANA — Accident investigators in the Bahamas say they have recovered the helicopter that crashed after taking off from a remote private island on Thursday, killing coal billionaire Chris Cline and six other Americans, as well as a British citizen.

The Bahamas Air Accident Investigation Department said on its website that a Florida-based contractor pulled the Agusta AW139 helicopter from the ocean late Saturday.

The helicopter was expected to be taken to Fort Lauderdale and then to an accident investigation facility in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Authorities have said it is too early to draw conclusions about the cause of the crash. They do not believe a distress call was made, and they only began searching after police received a report from Florida that the craft had failed to arrive in Fort Lauderdale as expected.

Those killed included Cline’s 22-year-old daughter, Kameron, and three of her close friends: Brittney Layne Searson, Jillian Clark, and Delaney Wykle. Searson, Clark and Kameron Cline were recent graduates of Louisiana State University. Wykle had recently graduated from West Virginia University.

Brad Ullman, executive director of the West Virginia Golf Association, confirmed that David Jude also was killed in the crash.

Bahamas Police Superintendent Shanta Knowles said Saturday that Geoffrey Painter of Barnstaple in the United Kingdom also was killed, and she confirmed the other victims’ identities to The Associated Press.

Cline began toiling in the mines of southern West Virginia at a young age, rising through the ranks of his father’s company quickly before forming his own energy development business, the Cline Group, which grew into one of the country’s top coal producers.

He went on to amass a fortune and became a major Republican donor.