At 11:08 a.m. on Friday morning the Stanton County Sheriff’s office was notified and responded to a report of a helicopter that had apparently crashed in southern Stanton County, Northwest of Clarkson. The helicopter was located by a Stanton County public power crew who responded to a power outage in the area. The damaged helicopter was found to have struck a power line in a field as it flew north over a bean field and was forced to land in the bean field. The pilot could not be located and a thermal drone was used to fly over the area to verify no one was unaccounted for or injured. After about an hour and numerous inquiries by the Sheriff’s office, the pilot was located in Valley, NE. The pilot was a 41-year-old male from the Omaha area and he advised he received no injuries and returned to Valley where flight operations had originated with a co-worker. The helicopter is unflyable and will have to be removed by special equipment from the field in the next few days. Stanton County Emergency Management and Clarkson Fire and Rescue also responded to the scene. The pilot was very lucky and made no effort to notify authorities of the incident.
