Helicopter Makes Emergency Landing In Downtown Fort Lauderdale
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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) -- A helicopter made an emergency landing and ended up in the streets of downtown Fort Lauderdale Wednesday afternoon.
Chopper4 was over the scene around 5 p.m. where you could see a helicopter in the middle of the road near Southeast 2nd Street and Southeast 4th Avenue. No visible damage could be seen.
Fort Lauderdale Fire officials say two people were on board at the time.
Those two people are okay and were not injured.
One of the passengers, a student pilot, was asked if he knew what happened.
"I do not know because I am just as student," he said. "Engine failure? Yes, I think so."
Fire officials say this was a training flight and the student and his teacher were the people on board at the time.
The helicopter suffered some damage, specifically to a rotor blade and piece of the tail that was found about 100 feet away from where they landed.
The chopper is registered to a Pembroke Pines company.
Locals heard the chopper go in to the street.
"It was extremely loud," said witness Maria Barrios. "Propellers; I saw the shadow coming. I said 'it looks real close, oh my god it is landing right there.'"
Federal Aviation Administration officials released a statement on the hard landing, saying,
"A Schweizer 269-C helicopter went down at Downtown Fort Lauderdale Airport at about 4:45 pm today. Two people were on board, local authorities will release their names and conditions. The FAA is investigating. We will update this statement when we get new information."
The FAA says the small helicopter departed a rooftop landing pad in Downtown Fort Lauderdale, a couple blocks to the west of the impact location.
