SAN CARLOS, Ariz. (AP) — A medical helicopter has crashed on Arizona’s San Carlos Indian reservation during a training flight and both people aboard were seriously injured, authorities said. There was no patient on the flight.
The pilot of the Eurocopter AS 350 lost control while trying to land at San Carlos’s Cutter airport around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor told KSAZ Fox Channel 10 in Phoenix.
Both people aboard were hospitalized with serious injuries, Bureau of Indian Affairs spokesman Warren Youngman said.
The helicopter belonged to EMS transportation provider Native Air, according to a report on KPNX-TV in Phoenix.
A spokesman for Native Air’s parent company, Joel Hochhalter, said helicopter, which departed from Williams Gateway Airport, is for training only and is not configured for medical transportation.
Hochhalter added the pilots’ injuries were not life-threatening.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate the crash.
No other details were immediately available. Police on the San Carlos reservation refused to provide details and Associated Press calls to the FAA and BIA went unanswered early Thursday morning.
The San Carlos Apache Reservation is along U.S. 70 between Globe and Safford, in Gila County, about 60 miles east of Phoenix.
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Information from: KPNX-TV
Information from: KSAZ-TV
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
