EAGLE POINT, Ore. - While pilot Cody Seeger was in his helicopter fighting two grass fires near Trail Sunday afternoon, something went wrong.
"We were told it was having an engine problem," Brian Ballou with the Oregon Department of Forestry said. "He reported he was going down, he was looking for a place to set down his helicopter."
Seeger was flying above a heavily wooded area when his chopper went down.
"He went down in some trees, actually a tree went up through the fuselage but it didn't hit the pilot," Ballou said. "He apparently landed on the skids but it tipped over on its right side."
Another helicopter was launched to search for the missing pilot, while crews on the ground carved out a road to get to him.
From the second helicopter circling above, it looked bad but when rescue crews got to the scene about 90 minutes later they found Seeger safe.
"It's always extremely worrisome when you have a helicopter go down but we were very pleased that the helicopter pilot was fine," Ballou said.
Seeger walked away from the crash and didn't even need to be treated by medical staff.
The helicopter and the pilot are contracted through Columbia Basin Helicopters. The company has not returned our calls.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
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