Eufaula man among those killed in Louisiana helicopter crash

Patrick Johnston
Media General News Service
Published: January 5, 2009

Tom Ballenger was the kind of person you wanted as a friend.

Gary Jones was friends with Tom for approximately 25 years. Gary and his wife, Debbie, first knew Tom and his wife, Ann, when they all lived in Troy.

“They have always been more like family than friends,” Gary stated in an e-mail Monday. “When our youngest son, Jacob, was to be baptized we asked them to be his godparents. What a great choice - From then until now, they always took a special interest in Jacob and our oldest son William as well.”

Ballenger, 63, was one of eight individuals killed Sunday in a helicopter crash that occurred in marshlands about 100 miles southwest of New Orleans.

According to a story in the Times-Picayune, the eight victims were on an oil-services helicopter that crashed nearly Bayou Penchant in Terrebonne Parish.

They were being transported by Lafayette-based Petroleum Helicopters Incorporated to the Shell-owned Cougar oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico according to a Shell spokesperson. One of the individuals on the helicopter did survive, though as of Monday he was reported in critical condition.

More information will appear in the midweek edition of The Eufaula Tribune, available Tuesday.