2 Deputies Hurt as Copter Crashes in Desert

Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies escaped serious injury Saturday when their helicopter crashed in a sparsely populated desert area in the Antelope Valley.

Pilot Richard Flores, 43, suffered a mild concussion, whiplash and scrapes, while Richard Nolte, 53, the observer, sustained a minor back injury in the 11 a.m. crash near the community of Llano, Deputy George Ducoulombier said.

The deputies, both assigned to the Antelope Valley Sheriff’s Station, were responding to a report of a man firing a gun when they radioed authorities that an engine had lost power. Sheriff’s spokesmen said the helicopter was about 3,000 feet up when the engine failed.

“The pilot was unable to restart the engine and the helicopter auto-rotored to the ground and landed hard,” Ducoulombier said.

Deputy Chris Wahla said the McDonald Douglas 500E helicopter hit the ground so hard that a rotor blade sheered off the tail boom. One of the five rotor blades also was damaged.

“There was debris scattered all over the place,” Wahla said. The $600,000 helicopter sustained major damage.

No one on the ground was injured. The two deputies were treated at Antelope Valley Medical Center.

“They were shaken up quite a bit,” Wahla said. “They’ll be off work for a few days.”

Frederick K. Childers, 68, of Llano said he had stepped out of his house to watch the helicopter as it hovered when he saw that it was in trouble.

“I knew immediately there was something wrong,” Childers said. “It kept trying to climb and couldn’t. It was descending like a regular airplane. Then, I saw it crashed.”

Childers said he immediately got in his pickup truck and drove to the crash site “to help out in the event there was serious trouble.”

“The two deputies were OK, but the helicopter was totaled,” he said. “It was a mess.”

Wahla said the exact cause of the crash is under investigation.