GTP Tower Unscathed After Copter Incident

September 10, 2012

Sept. 10 — The cell tower that was struck by medevac helicopter in Texas last month with enough force to knock off one of its skids apparently was left unharmed by the incident, according to officials at Global Tower Partners, which owns the tower.

“We did not find any evidence of that chopper hitting any portion of that tower,” Bernard Borghei, senior vice president, operations, Global Tower Partners, told AGL Bulletin. The helicopter company and hospital authorities are also analyzing the incident.

As soon as GTP received news of the incident, it dispatched a tower crew to the site to make sure the guy wires were intact and that the tension was at the correct levels. An engineering analysis was completed and sent to the tower company.

“We inspected the integrity of the tower itself, the anchor bolts and the structure. We found nothing that was out of compliance,” Borghei said. “We also checked with Flash Technologies [which was monitoring the site]. There was no NOTAM. Our lighting system was working fine.”

On August 5, a helicopter heading to San Antonio Military Medical Center from College Station collided with the cell tower, forcing an emergency landing at a local airport. Airport employees piled mattresses stabilized by gym weights on the helipad to soften the landing.

As for whether the GTP tower was not actually the structure that was hit, Borghei notes that there are no other cell towers in the area that could have been hit instead.