CHATHAM, Mass. – A pilot and his female passenger were seriously injured Friday afternoon when their small helicopter crashed near the shoreline of a Cape Cod pond.
John Ryan, of Scituate, Massachusetts, and Tyra Pacheco, of Acushnet, Massachusetts, both 48, had to be freed from the partially submerged aircraft after it went down just before 1 p.m. at Crows Pond.
Ryan was sent to Cape Cod Hospital in nearby Hyannis with serious injuries, police said. Pacheco was listed in critical condition Friday evening at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Witnesses told police the two-seat Robinson helicopter, which had been hired out of Plymouth Airport to do real estate photography, was flying low over local residences when its engine began sputtering and the pilot attempted to land it on the pond's shoreline.
Both Ryan and Pacheco were conscious when rescue workers arrived, police said.
Federal investigators were scheduled to arrive at the crash site Saturday.
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