911 call from sole survivor of helicopter crash released

Andra Cobb, the sole survivor of a horrific helicopter crash in a remote part of New Mexico, was frantic and screaming as she described the scene to a 911 operator. 

Police in Raton released the audio recording on Friday, two days after five people were killed when their helicopter crashed and then erupted in flames.

‘I’m watching my family burn in a fire,’ Cobb yelled on the phone, hysterical. ‘I don’t know what to do. There’s a big fire. I’m covered in gasoline.’

Cobb, Zimbabwean opposition leader Roy Bennett and pilot Jamie Coleman Dodd survived the initial crash. 

Andra Cobb (pictured on the right with her boyfriend Charles Burnett III) is the sole survivor of a helicopter crash that killed five people.

Cobb (pictured on right posing next to Burnett) watched in horror as her friends and family burned to death in the Wednesday night crash 

Cobb (pictured on right posing next to Burnett) watched in horror as her friends and family burned to death in the Wednesday night crash 

Dodd also called 911 telling the operator that he had broken his pelvis and was trying to move away from the flames. Dodd died before authorities could get to their location.

Bennett, who was suffering from head wounds, also died as police searched for crash site. 

Wealthy businessman and action lover Charles Burnett III (pictured) was killed in a helicopter accident on Wednesday

Cobb, 39, remains in the hospital with several broken bones. She’s expected to survive.  

 ‘She’s just very distraught,’ her mother Martha Cobb told the Associated Press in a phone interview. 

‘I’m just glad my daughter is OK, but I hate that my husband of 41 years is gone.’ 

 Cobb remained on the phone with the 911 operator for about an hour before help arrived. At one point during the call she was heard telling Bennett to breathe.

‘I’m very, very cold,’ she told the operator.

Police said the rugged terrain and lack of access slowed down their response time. Officials also said when the helicopter crashed it sparked a grass fire. 

An investigation has been launched to determine what caused the crash. Cobb said the helicopter was in the air only three to five minutes before it went down.  

The group of friends, which also included Cobb’s longtime partner Charles Burnett III, her father and co-pilot Paul Cobb and Bennett’s wife Heather, were traveling to New Mexico to spend their vacation at Burnett’s ranch when their Huey UH-1 went down Wednesday night.

Burnett's friends, pilot Jamie Coleman Dodd (pictured) of Colorado was also killed while ferrying the group over New Mexico

Burnett’s friends, pilot Jamie Coleman Dodd (pictured) of Colorado was also killed while ferrying the group over New Mexico

An investigation has been launched to determine what caused the helicopter crash  

An investigation has been launched to determine what caused the helicopter crash  

Paul Cobb, Burnett and Heather all died in the crash.        

A citizen of the United States, Canada and England, Burnett was an investor and businessman based out of Houston. He also headed the Notsew Orm Sands Foundation, funding a wide variety of causes, including medical research and education.

Co-pilot Paul Cobb also perished in the crash. He was Andra Cobb's father 

Co-pilot Paul Cobb also perished in the crash. He was Andra Cobb’s father 

Known for his love of everything fast, he achieved a variety of world records using catamarans and mono-hulls powered by diesel and petrol. He made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1999 for an offshore water speed record of 137mph. 

He later set another Guinness record by successfully breaking the land speed record for a steam powered vehicle – which has stood for 100 years – achieving a speed of 151mph in August 2009.  

The entrepreneurial Texan and CCS manager also set up Vulture Ventures, a UK-based offshore boat racing team, which soon became known as the world’s most successful team in the sport.    

Dodd was a long-time helicopter pilot and aviation manager at Boyert Shooting Center. The former Marine corporal was flying over the mountains, about 15 miles east of the small city of Raton, near the Colorado state line, at around 6pm when the helicopter went down. 

Bennett, 60, treasurer-general of the Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change opposition party, won a devoted following of black Zimbabweans for passionately advocating political change.

Senior Zimbabwean MDC opposition official Roy Bennett, left, and his wife Heather, relax at a friend's home in Mutare about 200 km east of Harare, Zimbabwe Oct. 16, 2009. They were both killed in the crash

Senior Zimbabwean MDC opposition official Roy Bennett, left, and his wife Heather, relax at a friend’s home in Mutare about 200 km east of Harare, Zimbabwe Oct. 16, 2009. They were both killed in the crash

Bennett, a white man who spoke fluent Shona and drew the wrath of former President Robert Mugabe, survived a traumatic year in jail and death threats over his work. He was known as ‘Pachedu,’ meaning ‘one of us’ in Shona and was often called the sharpest thorn in Mugabe’s side.

Obert Gutu, spokesman for the MDC-T party, described Bennett’s death as a ‘huge and tragic loss’.  

The group was heading to the Emery Gap Ranch, a mountainous property on the Colorado-New Mexico border. Burnett bought it in February 2017, said Sam Middleton, a real estate broker in Lubbock, Texas, who helped with the purchase.



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