"We saw the helicopter in the distance, it was spinning around like it was coming in to land."
Maybe he crashed because he didn't stop his landing spin in time? Personally, when I'm landing, I start my spinning at around 300 feet and aim to have it stopped by about 25 feet, maybe 50 in gusty conditions. One day I hope to be able to continue the spin into the hover. Maybe even continue it to my parking spot, though that may be too much to hope for.