Two people working on powerlines near the Mississippi River died Thursday when their helicopter hit the lines, crashed into a barge and sparked a fire that belched plumes of black smoke, officials said.
The helicopter crew was near East Alton, Illinois, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of St. Louis, when it careened into the barge on the Missouri side of the river. Authorities said no other injuries were reported.
Adam Briggs was fishing on the shore that morning, watching the helicopter zig-zag across the river and eventually pick up a worker with a marker ball to add to a line.
After a brief glance at his phone, Briggs looked back up to see pieces of the helicopter plunging toward the barge, then he heard a bang and saw smoke.
“I was in shock and awe of what I was actually seeing, just disbelief," Briggs told The Associated Press. The veteran and former aircraft firefighter called 911 then starting filming and frantically describing the crash.
“There was a pilot, there was a worker, the helicopter blew up and fell and crashed in that barge and it’s exploding right now," he says in the video. Explosions continued for several minutes. “They're dead. They have to be dead."
A spokesperson for the power company Ameren said a contractor and subcontractor had been repairing and replacing tower lighting and marker balls on lines. “Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with the victims’ families and colleagues,” Ameren said in a statement.
The names of the workers who were killed have not been released.
Aviation experts say this type of work is common for utility companies, but fatal crashes are rare.
Hassan Shahidi, president and CEO of Flight Safety Foundation, said the pilot must be able to keep the helicopter hovering steadily in place and that investigators will consider if wind or a sudden change in the atmosphere played a role in the crash.
Briggs said he felt a breeze but that it didn’t appear very windy.
Power lines are a key hazard for any helicopter pilot because they can be difficult to see, said Thomas Anthony, director of USC’s Aviation Safety and Security Program.
Anthony recalled an attendee at an aviation conference who approached him after Anthony gave a lecture and asked if he’d had ever heard about “the dream.”
“Helicopter pilots all dream in fear” about power lines, the man explained.
In 2018, a helicopter crew stringing new powerlines crashed in Pennsylvania, killing two people and injuring the pilot.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, and an NTSB investigator is expected to arrive on site Friday.
Anthony said investigators will likely consider if the helicopter contractor had a safety management system in place to mitigate risks.
The helicopter crashed around 11 a.m. Thursday on the Mississippi River about half a mile (800 meters) downriver from the Melvin Price Lock and Dam, said Rivers Pointe Fire District Chief Rick Pender. First responders arrived from the Illinois and Missouri sides of the river.
The fire department rushed by boat to the crash site and a private tug boat helped to douse the flames, said Alton Deputy Fire Chief Matt Fischer. No one was on the barge when it was struck.
The river has been closed to commercial traffic.
Reflecting on the accident, Briggs told AP it was emotional to watch and that he has great respect for the workers.
“Those guys have a very dangerous job. They are doing it for other people’s safety,” he said. “It takes a brave person to do it.”
Bedayn reported from Denver, Tareen from Chicago and Yamat from Las Vegas. Associated Press reporters Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, and Beatrice Dupuy in New York City contributed.
A blue tarp covers the wreckage of a helicopter after it clipped a power line spanning the Mississippi River and crashed onto a barge Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in East Alton, Ill. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
A tarp covers the wreckage of a helicopter after it clipped a power line spanning the Mississippi River and crashed onto a barge Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in East Alton, Ill. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
MILAN (AP) — Flights from across Europe were diverted or forced to make emergency landings on Thursday because of bomb threats, authorities said. So far, inspections have not turned up hazardous or suspicious materials.
The incidents followed hoax bomb threats earlier this week that prompted searches, diversions and, in one case, a military escort.
More than a dozen flights were targeted, including those from Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Madrid, Milan and Warsaw.
Such threats aren’t a new phenomenon but come at a time of increased geopolitical tensions and signs of “disruption,” like attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, drone incursions in Europe and mysterious triggers to alert apps.
The latest on Thursday's developments:
The flight departed Helsinki bound for Rome after an email threat was received, the air force said in a statement.
A Croatian fighter jet first intercepted it in Croatian airspace before handing it off to the Italians, the Croatian defense ministry said.
Finnair said that two of its flights, including the one that received the military escort and landed safely in Rome, “faced unfounded hoax bomb scares.” The other flight, operated by Jettime from Helsinki to Vienna, landed safely at its destination, and was expected to return to service after an inspection, Finnair said.
Bogota’s City Hall said in a statement that the threat to the Italian airport was emailed by an account tied to a public health network in Colombia’s capital.
The statement said there have been several possible cyberattacks against public entities in recent days and their email accounts may have been used by international hackers.
No bomb was found on the Aer Lingus Dublin-Rome flight that was diverted to a military air base in France, the regional prosecutor said.
After French authorities were informed of the bomb threat and ordered the plane to land in Normandy, the Irish pilot apparently refused, Remi Coutin said in a statement. As a result, the French government sent two warplanes to escort the Airbus passenger jet to Evreux.
The pilot and the English co-pilot are being questioned as part of an investigation into what happened, the prosecutor said.
An email containing the threat to Rome-bound planes was sent on behalf of a group that describes itself as anti-feminist, according to a copy provided by an airport official and reviewed by the AP.
An official from another European airport said the threat they received also came from a group calling itself anti-feminist, and used some of the same language. It was not clear if they were the same group.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to share the information.
Greece’s Aegean Airlines confirmed Thursday that two of its flights received bomb threats that proved to be hoaxes.
It said in a statement that Flight A3552 from Thessaloniki to Milan and Flight A3860 from Athens to Vienna were bomb threat targets.
The airline said all security protocols were implemented and that the flights departed from both Milan and Vienna after it was confirmed that the threats were “baseless.”
“The security of our passengers and crew is and will continue to be our highest priority,” the statement said.
Britain’s transport secretary says flights across Europe have been hit by “malicious hoax threats.”
Heidi Alexander told broadcasters that “a small number of flights across Europe have been disrupted.” She said there are “established processes for dealing with hoax and malicious threats, and that’s what these threats have been.”
She did not provide information on what the established processes are.
An Aer Lingus plane rerouted to western France while en route from Dublin to Rome is standing on the tarmac at a military air base in Evreux, under an overcast sky.
A Red Cross vehicle is nearby, but no activity is visible at the base of the plane. Metal gates ring the base and outsiders are not allowed in.
It is unclear where the passengers and crew are being held while explosives experts examine the plane.
Finnair said that two of its flights, AY1761 from Helsinki to Rome and AY1471 from Helsinki to Vienna, faced unfounded or hoax bomb threats Thursday.
“Both flights landed safely at their destinations, and customers have disembarked the aircraft,” it said.
Nothing suspicious were found on the planes, it added. The plane to Rome was inspected and will depart back to Helsinki, while the flight to Vienna will “return to traffic normally after inspection.”
In the Czech Republic, police were sent to Prague’s Vaclav Havel Airport to prepare for the landing of four planes after receiving threats of explosive devices on board. Police said that “all necessary security measures have been activated.”
Police later said searches of the planes that landed in Prague found nothing suspicious. They did not give details on where the flights originated from.
Passengers seen at Sofia's Vasil Levski Airport in Bulgaria, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, as three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, had to make emergency landings because of bomb threats on board. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
A police car is seen in front of Vasil Levski Sofia Airport after three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, Bulgaria, made emergency landings following bomb threats on board, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
An airplane seen at Sofia's Vasil Levski Airport in Bulgaria, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, as three Ryanair flights bound for Sofia, had to make emergency landings because of bomb threats on board. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
An Aer Lingus Airbus A320 aircraft is seen at Evreux military air base after a flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to France amid reports of bomb threats targeting multiple flights across Europe, in Evreux, France, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
