By Madhuri Dey
Tucson, July 29, (THAINDIAN NEWS) On Wednesday at around 1:45 p.m. (local time), the AS350 B3 Eurocopter, a medical helicopter, crashed on a Tucson street claiming the lives of all three crew members on board. Although the exact reasons of the crash is being investigated, local witnesses claimed that the rotors of the helicopter stopped working before the plane plummeted to the ground. The helicopter crashed into a fence of a Park Avenue house at Glenn Street. The helicopter was owned by Colorado-based Air Methods who confirmed the deaths of the three crew men and added that it was not carrying any patient.

The medical helicopter was traveling from Marana to Douglas when the plane crashed at Tucson ground. Some eyewitnesses have mentioned to media sources that the pilot of the plane avoided a greater tragedy by steering the plane from hitting the house and instead landed on its fence. Ricardo Carrasco, a local resident said to media sources, “If he (the pilot) hadn’t turned around he’d have hit the house”. The man also added that he had run to assist after the crash but failed to do so as the helicopter had created a “wall of flames”. The local volunteers however helped to evacuate the neighboring houses before the Tucson firefighters extinguished the fire. No injuries as such were reported on the ground.

The spokesman of the Federal Aviation Administration, Lynn Lunsford said to media sources on Wednesday that the helicopter was in contact with the air traffic controllers before the crash and that it had not reported any kind of difficulty. The FAA will be investigating the crash along with the National Transportation Safety Board.