Report points to rotor problem in Arizona police helicopter crash that killed 2 during gunfight

[mahatmakanejeeves]

U.S. News
Report points to rotor problem in[strike Arizona police helicopter crash that killed 2 during gunfight]

By MEAD GRUVER and JOSH FUNK
Updated 5:48 PM EDT, March 10, 2026

A radio feed from a police helicopter captured two loud banging sounds and a voice saying “we’re going down,” just before it crashed, killing the two people on board, according to a preliminary investigation report released Tuesday. ... The crash the night of Feb. 4 killed Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper paramedic Hunter Bennett, 28, and pilot Robert Skankey, 61.

Much of the helicopter’s fuselage including the cockpit and cabin burned in the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report did not draw any conclusions about the cause but pointed to a mechanical problem involving the main rotor rather than bullets fired skyward: There was no sign of “ballistic punctures” in the wreckage, it said. ... More definitive answers are expected in a final NTSB report a year or more from now.

Soon after the crash, police arrested Terrell Storey, 50, whom police allege hopped from roof to roof in a residential neighborhood while exchanging gunfire with officers. ... The helicopter arrived to provide a bird’s-eye view to help officers on the ground. Before crashing, the aircraft was circling back to the shootout scene when it slowed to almost a hover about 1,000 feet (300 meters) over a hilltop, according to public flight-path data.

The preliminary report focused substantially on the chopper’s main rotor that malfunctioned before the crash. Three of the four rotor blades came to rest 165 feet (50 meters) away from the main wreckage. The fourth landed 650 feet (200 meters) away. ... The helicopter’s tail boom and upper part of its vertical fin, meanwhile, had “multiple impact marks and punctures consistent with main rotor blade strikes sustained during the separation sequence.” Part of the tail boom landed 135 feet (40 meters) from the main wreckage, the report said. ... There was clearly a mechanical problem with the main rotor but it’s not clear yet whether the problem was in the transmission or somewhere else in the helicopter’s engine, aviation safety expert John Cox told The Associated Press.

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JOSH FUNK
Funk is an Associated Press reporter who covers transportation including aviation safety and airlines along with all the major freight railroads. Funk also covers Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, the impact of the ongoing bird flu outbreak, agriculture and other news out of the Midwest.
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[Kali]

1. edit

oh it was in Flagstaff

first I heard of it!