A pilot and a mechanic were slightly injured when a helicopter used to fight fires crashed in Washington state Friday, according to reports.
Local officials said the chopper crash-landed at Olympia Regional Airport after experiencing a mechanical issue shortly after taking off on a test flight just before 10 a.m., the Seattle Times reported.
The Bell “Huey” chopper owned by Northwest Helicopters was in the air for less than ten seconds, according to the reports.
Northwest Helicopters owner Brian Reynolds told KING-TV he was standing nearby and saw what happened.
He said the helicopter took off and only got a couple hundred feet of altitude before it went down.
"I saw the tail rotor wasn’t moving, and I knew they were in serious trouble at this point," Reynolds told the station.
Reynolds said he saw the helicopter slowly start to move and spin before the pilot realized what was going on, according to KING. The pilot then turned the power off and maneuvered the helicopter to the ground.
"He did all the proper procedures to get it down," Reynolds told the station.
The station reported that the chopper was on a routine maintenance flight for the main rotor.
The helicopter crashed intact, but crookedly in grass south of the runway, NW News Network reported.
The injuries to the pilot and the mechanic were described as minor.
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