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Six honored for helicopter crash investigation Friday Oct 21, 2016 at 4:32 PM Oct 21, 2016 at 4:32 PM A Medford federal prosecutor and five federal agents have been recognized for their investigation into the 2008 Iron 44 helicopter crash that killed nine firefighters in Northern California. On Thursday evening at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency honored Assistant U.S. Attorney Byron Chatfield and five federal agents for the seven-year investigation into the helicopter crash that culminated in the sentencing of two Carson Helicopter executives for falsifying documents that led to the deadliest wildland fire disaster in U.S. history. The Investigations Award for Excellence named Chatfield and special agents Colleen Anderson with the Treasury, Jeffrey Gray with the Department of Justice, Matthew Manke with the Department of Agriculture and agents Steven Albino and Mark Brandt with the Department of Transportation for their efforts to prove that Carson Vice President Steven Metheny and Maintenance Director Levi Phillips falsified the aircraft's weight capacities and balance charts to win Forest Service contracts. To prove that the executives falsified the aircraft's weight and balance documents to win more than $51 million in Forest Service contracts, the investigation team interviewed 246 witnesses in five countries, issued 84 trial subpoenas and performed three computer forensics exams, amounting to more than 129,000 pages of documents, according to a release issued by the Department of Justice. Metheny was sentenced to 145 months in prison and Phillips was sentenced to 25 months in prison in June 2015 in U.S. District Court in Medford.