A helicopter carrying two Flathead County employees crashed on the slopes of Mount Aeneas east of Kalispell Thursday morning, but no one was injured.

“It’s on a snowfield. It rolled over on its side,” Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said of the Bell 407 helicopter operated by Two Bear Management.

“Exactly what happened is unclear and it’s under investigation,” Curry said. “We’ll figure out what happened. We don’t know if they had mechanical failure or some other kind of issue, but we’ll figure it out.”  

The helicopter was piloted by Jason Johnson, the director of operations and chief pilot for Two Bear Management, a company owned by Whitefish philanthropist and venture capitalist Mike Goguen.

Curry would not identify the county employees, who had been flown in to work on a radio antenna on Mount Aeneas.

The crash occurred at about 10:30 a.m. with the helicopter coming down just east of Mount Aeneas. Curry said another helicopter picked up the pilot and two passengers at about 11:30 a.m.

“They were brought out safely,” Curry said.

Jordan White, a spokesman for Two Bear Management, offered more details of what occurred.

“What happened is a loss of control due to tail rotor effectiveness, which means you lose directional control of the aircraft,” he said. “There can be multiple reasons why that happens ... but the effect is the pilot can’t maintain directional control of the aircraft.”

White had praise for Johnson, who has been a helicopter pilot for 16 years with more than 5,000 hours of flight experience, including extensive mountain flying.

“The takeaway is thank goodness everybody’s OK. That’s the important part, nobody got hurt,” he said. “The pilot did an outstanding job of performing an emergency landing, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

The causes of the crash eventually will be detailed in reports from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration. White said it’s unclear when the downed helicopter will be removed.

“We’re working on that right now and trying to figure that out. There’s a lot of people that have to be notified,” he said.

Ultimately, White said, the helicopter will be “long-lined” out of the area by another helicopter because that is the best way to prevent further damage to the helicopter.

Curry noted that the Bell 407 is a quality helicopter, the same make and model used by Kalispell Regional Medical Center’s ALERT helicopter program.

Mount Aeneas, at 7,530 feet, is a dominant feature in the Swan Range skyline and sits at the edge of the Jewel Basin Hiking Area.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at [email protected].