LINO LAKES , Minn., Oct. 7 (UPI) — A helicopter crash in Lino Lakes, Minn., killed at least two people, officials reported.
The helicopter crashed late Thursday afternoon in a field several hundred feet from a residential area in the northeastern suburb of Minneapolis and St. Paul, leaving burned wreckage and debris spread across the field.
The victims were identified as a 48-year-old man from Minneapolis, Minn., and a 47-year-old woman from Blaine, Minn. Their names have not yet been released.
“There is not a lot I can tell you about the crash scene, but there’s a large fireball. We cannot identify much. It’s basically charred-up debris,” said Anoka County Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Paul Sommer. “This is a horrible tragedy. I can’t begin to describe what that scene looks like.”
Witnesses said they saw the helicopter in flight, heard a popping sound and saw the aircraft’s rotor stop turning. It then crashed to the ground and burned in a smoky fire. No one on the ground was injured, and Sommer expressed relief the helicopter did not strike nearby houses.
A landing strip is about a mile from the crash site, but authorities do not know if the helicopter was using it to take off or to land. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board began investigating the crash Friday.
