Flight school helicopter crashes in Denton trees

A flight instructor and a student pilot were injured Wednesday afternoon when the helicopter in which they were practicing maneuvers crashed into trees close to a local airport, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

FAA investigators were en route to the scene of the crash at 4 p.m., FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said.

Denton police said the crash occurred when the Enstrom model helicopter lost engine power.

But Lunsford said he could not confirm that.

“At this point all I can tell you is that we are going to investigate it,” he said.

Denton police received a 911 call at 2:17 p.m. Wednesday that a helicopter had crashed in a wooded area by Robson Ranch on private property, said officer Orlando Hinojosa, a Denton police spokesman.

The crash site was about a mile west of Interstate 35W and Crawford Road.

The helicopter is owned by the Longhorn Helicopter flight school in Denton.

“Two people were in the aircraft — the instructor and student pilot — and they had loss of engine power and were going to try to land in an open field,” Hinojosa said. “They were 100 yards short.”

The female instructor was flown to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Denton with a broken arm, and the male student was flown to The Medical Center of Plano with lower back injuries, Hinojosa said.

The injuries were not life-threatening, he said.

This story was originally published May 6, 2015 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Flight school helicopter crashes in Denton trees."