The three people killed in a medical helicopter crash in Kentucky have been identified.

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The Kentucky State Police released the names of the three people who died in the medical helicopter crash in Owen County Kentucky, our news partner’s WCPO-9 TV reported.

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The Owen County Coroner pronounced Gale Alleman, Bethany Aicken, and James Welsh dead at the site of the crash near Kentucky Highway 22 East.

Alleman, Aicken, and Welsh were crew members from the Air Evac Lifeteam base 133 in Grant County, Kentucky, according to a statement from the air medical service company.

The crash occurred Monday Evening around 6 p.m., the FAA told WCPO-9 TV. The Bell 206 helicopter was on its way to pick up a patient.

Air Evac Lifeteam said it is working with the FAA and the NTSB during their investigation of the crash.

NTSB investigators will be on scene Tuesday afternoon, according to an NTSB spokesperson.

“A preliminary report is expected within 30 days of the accident,” an NTSB statement read. “The preliminary report will contain factual information gathered during the initial phase of the investigation. A probable cause of the crash, along with any contributing factors, will be detailed in the final report, which is expected in 12-24 months.”

News Center 7 will continue to follow this story

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – Restoration efforts are still underway more than a week after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on several states.

Hundreds of linemen from Kentucky have been boots on the ground in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia ever since.

With Hurricane Milton rolling in, WKYT checked in with Kentucky Electric Cooperatives to ask about their plan.

“There are more than 160 co-op employees, which is in addition to hundreds of contractors who have been released by the co-ops,” said Joe Arnold with Kentucky Electric Cooperatives.

Arnold says more than half of the 26 electric co-ops in Kentucky sent crews to devastated sites, primarily in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

“It’s like a military operation. You’re trying to assess all the needs, where things are most critical and you’re going to move troops, linemen, around depending upon what that need is,” Arnold said.

Arnold says KY Electric Cooperatives’ role is to coordinate the deployment of the state’s individual co-ops.

He says even with Hurricane Milton barreling toward the Gulf Coast, Kentucky crews will likely stay where they are so as not to walk out on North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

“The concern from a macro-sense that we’re seeing right now, is the Florida co-op crews have been very helpful and part of that team of more than 20 states that have sent crews into North Carolina and South Carolina, for instance,” Arnold said. “Those crews have to be called back to help with their own local co-ops. That’s going to create a void.”

Arnold says some crews in Kentucky could be called to Florida, but the co-ops still have to keep ample resources here.

“You can’t send everybody, unfortunately, because you have to take care of the folks who are back home here as well,” Arnold said.

Arnold says that for those asking what sending our linemen elsewhere does for us, it’s not only our civic duty but also that it gives them real-world training to be better equipped to handle future emergencies here.

“These same cooperatives came to our aid here in Kentucky after windstorms and ice storms,” Arnold said. “We know some of these linemen that are working shoulder-to-shoulder there. This is very personal to them. I think it’s been hard on them. I think they’re seeing a lot of suffering.”

Arnold said when crews here packed up to go, they packed for several weeks. He says they’re working up to 15 hours daily and living in tent cities to help reconstruct utility poles and more.

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HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. — Housing affordability is a critical issue in northern Kentucky where home prices continue to outpace wage growth. Many of the essential workers the region depends on are struggling to achieve the “American Dream” of homeownership, according to a study.

“The narrative has been for many years that we need affordable housing, which is kind of a euphemism for: we need subsidized housing. And we absolutely do need that. But there’s a whole other set of people that work full-time jobs, they’re not on welfare, they’re not on public assistance, but they can’t afford a home either. Because housing prices have risen so much faster than wages,” said Janet Harrah, senior director of the Center for Economic Analysis and Development in the Haile College of Business at Northern Kentucky University. 

She said there is a large swath of what used to be considered “very solid middle-class families,” but “those occupations are no longer middle class. Things like teachers, LPNs, firefighters, police officers, they can no longer afford a median price home in northern Kentucky.”

Harrah put together a study showing the disparity between median home prices and household income in northern Kentucky, which is further broken down by occupation.

A household must earn at least $69,920 annually to afford a median-priced home in Northern Kentucky, which is currently $291,720. This follows the rule that no more than 30% of income should go toward housing costs, with those exceeding considered “house burdened.”

“The bad news is we have lots of people that live and work here that really can’t afford to get into the housing market,” Harrah said. “The good news is that compared to other markets, Cincinnati is still very affordable. Not just northern Kentucky, but the whole metro area.”

Of the 630 detailed occupations in the study, just 177 or 28% can comfortably afford a median-priced home. Harrah said if current trends continue, northern Kentucky risks becoming unaffordable for the very workers who keep the region running.

“We need teachers, we need nurses, we need fire and police,” she said. “So we as a community need to figure out how do we make that job pay enough that they can still have a good quality of life and live in our community?”

Harrah said she doesn’t expect housing prices to decrease anytime soon. However, she said if people can wait another six to 12 months, she expects interest rates to go down, making it easier for people to buy a home.