‘Happiest day of their lives’ turns into tragedy
As newlyweds, pilot are mourned, officials comb scene of copter crash
Game Warden Dennis Gazaway listened to a radio dispatch early Sunday from the Uvalde Police Department that stood out from the normal middleof-the-night deer season fare that rural cops might hear.
It was 1:30 a.m. and an automatic distress signal from a helicopter alerted Civil Air Patrol officials that it may have crashed in the remote, brush-covered hills of northwest Uvalde County.
Gazaway and partner Rachel Kellner got as close as they could in the dark but needed all-terrain vehicles and daylight to scale down a steep hillside to find the wreckage of a Bell 206B helicopter — and the bodies of two newlyweds and their pilot.
What the two Texas Parks and Wildlife officers learned later — that Sam Houston State University seniors Will Byler and Bailee Ackerman Byler, both 24, had been married just hours earlier on the Byler family’s ranch and were headed to their honeymoon — seemed too tragic to imagine.
“We’re parents, too,” Gazaway said. “And the circumstances were just overwhelming. This was the happiest day of their lives and they were in love.”
The pilot was identified as Gerald Douglas Lawrence, 76, a Vietnam veteran and former Army captain who, according to Pentagon records, had won the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bronze Star in 12 years of service.
Will Byler’s father owned the helicopter, according to Uvalde County Justice of the Peace Steve Kennedy, and Lawrence had flown it for about 20 years. A Federal Aviation
Administration database shows Lawrence had an up-to-date medical certificate to fly, was licensed as an “airline transport pilot,” meaning he could fly aircraft as large as commercial jets, and was a flight instructor.
Kennedy said Lawrence had taken off from the wedding site and was headed to San Antonio International Airport. The helicopter had been airborne for only about 10 to 15 minutes before crashing into a 400-foot hillside, he said.
Gazaway and Kellner said they and other investigators — from the FAA, the Texas Department of Public Safety and sheriff’s deputies — had to tread carefully because the wreckage was in an almost-vertical position and could have shifted or fallen down the hillside.
“The helicopter was in a terrible state, multiple pieces,” Kellner said. Both game wardens said the bodies were found amid the wreckage and there was no obvious sign of the crash’s cause.
Craig Hatch, an air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, arrived at the scene Monday. At a press conference in Uvalde, the county seat, he said he would take another day to gather evidence, then the helicopter would be taken to a secure site near Dallas for further examination.
Hatch did not speculate as to any cause. The NTSB generally can take weeks or months before releasing a report.
The game wardens said the fathers of both the bride and groom and another three or four unidentified family members arrived at the crash scene by another helicopter around 7 a.m. Sunday and spent about 30 minutes there.
“They were mourning, certainly,” Gazaway said. “We tried to comfort them. I cannot fathom where the family would be emotionally at a time like that. I have two kids myself.”
A flood of condolences and remembrances poured in on social media from stunned fellow students and family friends.
Katie Ellis, who said she was best of friends with Bailee Byler, said the couple loved to be with family and were members of Sam Houston State’s rodeo team.
“She was full of life, beautiful, and could light up a room with her smile,” Ellis said in an email. “When Bailee met Will, she completely fell in love. Will was so adventurous and lived life to the fullest every single day, and Bailee always went with the flow.”
Bailee was going to graduate in December and Will in May, Ellis said.