The following is from a friend who lives near FFZ:
It was on the news that evening,
the helicopter lost hydraulic and the pilot headed for the turf at falcon, he had radioed ahead to the tower and was heard by the news chopper 10, we got to see the crash in all its glory.
It hit hard, rolled 45degrees right, broke onto three pieces and the rotor kept turning…
It looked like a wounded animal thrashing about in the dirt at the end of the turf.
Three or four large helicopter pieces twisting and writhing in great pain, then the crash truck arrived and squirted foam into the intake choking the last breath from the turbine.
It bleached and coughed one more time as though in the throws of certain death…it died..
The medic and pilot crawled out the broken windscreen and left side door.
The flight nurse and patient remained in the wreckage awaiting the assistance of the fire department..
No one was seriously injured…
The helicopter looked like a pile of wrecked parts awaiting pick-up along the edge of the turf and taxiway as though discarded by a careless landscaper who had just cleaned up a yard full of miscellaneous metal debris. While only a moment before was a million dollar piece of equipment shining in all it’s glory now to be regulated to the scrap heap.. it is a total loss..