Roofers rushed to help pilot after witnessing Waterloo helicopter crash

A helicopter crashed into a field in Waterloo Friday morning, according Waterloo police.

The crash happened in a cornfield near the 400 block of Mockingbird Lane on the east side of the city, said Chief Jeff Prosise. He said police received the emergency call at 9:25 a.m.

“The caller said they thought they saw the helicopter go down and there was smoke, but there were no flames that they could see,” he said.

Another caller told police they saw pieces of the helicopter near homes in the neighborhood that is bordered to the north by the cornfields.

The caller said the pilot walked way from the wreckage, which was later confirmed by police, Prosise said.

“He crashed kind of close to the yards, I don’t know, like 100 feet out into the field,” Prosise said. “The caller said there were pieces of the helicopter in the yards and that the pilot is not injured. When the officer arrived he said ‘yeah, I can see the pilot walking around and he appears to be uninjured.’”

John Kopp, a resident, said he didn’t see the crash but “heard a noise that sounded like a motorcycle.”

He said a “bunch of roofers ran over” towards the crash and saw “four firetrucks” arrived outside of his house at 9:30 a.m.

One of the roofers, who identified himself only as Carlos, was working on the roof of a nearby home when he saw the helicopter flying low before crashing into the field.

He said he ran to check on the pilot and offered to call 911. The pilot warned him to not touch the helicopter. There was a lot of smoke, he said, but he didn’t see any flames.

He “was nervous and his body was shaking a lot,” Carlos said. “He was scared a lot.”

An officer on the scene said the Federal Aviation Administration will take over the investigation.

Monroe County EMS, the Waterloo Fire Department, Waterloo police and a Federal Aviation Administration inspector remain on the scene.

This story was originally published July 22, 2022 at 10:16 AM.