Police helicopter crashes in Atlanta, 2 dead

ATLANTA — A police helicopter flying low over Atlanta on a nighttime search for a missing 9-year-old boy plunged to the ground in a northwest neighborhood of shops and apartments, killing the two officers aboard, authorities said Sunday.

Both officers died on impact in the crash about 10:30 p.m. Saturday and no one was hurt on the ground, police spokesman Carlos Campos said. The crash occurred in an Atlanta district near heavily traveled Interstate 20 in a mixed area of fast food restaurants, shopping plazas and apartments where utility lines bristle overhead.

A photograph aired on a local TV newscast afterward showed what appeared to be flaming debris in a roadway. The helicopter fell in an area roughly 4 miles west of downtown Atlanta. Power was blacked out to a nearby pharmacy and other businesses close by and a utility crew was seen afterward in the area, apparently working to restore electricity.

"It appeared to hit the utility wire on the way down," Campos told The Associated Press, citing preliminary information. But he emphasized: "We don't know what caused it" and referred all queries to the Federal Aviation Administration, which was just opening its investigation.