If they had just rented a room, they might be alive today. Aviation investigators say bad decisions, and a lot of drugs caused a helicopter crash which killed three men in Jackson County east of Marianna almost two years ago.

The men died when their helicopter collided with trees and crashed to the ground near Grand Ridge on New Years Day, 2006.

The chopper had been used in Hurricane Katrina relief in Mississippi, and was returning to central Florida.

The men landed the chopper in the parking lot of a Jackson County I-10 truck stop when they ran into rough weather. They walked to a motel across the street and asked about room rates, but decided to continue flying.

A few miles away, their chopper slammed into some trees, then crashed and burned near Interstate-10. All 3-died at the scene.

The N-T-S-B blames the crash on the men’s decision to continue flying into the bad weather, while they were using drugs...a lot of drugs.

Toxicology test showed the methamphetamine level in the pilot’s blood was 50 times higher than a normal single dose of a prescription drug. The passengers also had levels of drugs in their systems at the time of the crash.