NTSB: Main rotor blade struck tail boom on doomed helicopter

ROWLETT, Texas (AP) — Federal investigators say they found main rotor impact marks next to a tail boom that separated from a helicopter just before a crash near Dallas. In a preliminary report issued Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board said impact marks agents found adjacent to the boom separation were consistent with in-flight contact. Agents found no evidence of any pre-separation failures. A student helicopter pilot and a flight instructor died in the March 25 crash in a vacant lot in a Rowlett, Texas, commercial strip. Witnesses reported seeing the helicopter lose its tail rotor and spin uncontrollably before crashing and burning.