THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Investigators are on scene after a pilot was killed in a helicopter crash in The Woodlands.
The crash happened in a field on College Park and Gossling around 1 p.m. Friday.
The pilot has been confirmed dead. He has been identified as 51-year-old Michael Gene Mims, of Conroe, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Eyewitness accounts could help determine the cause of this crash.
"I was in my back yard and I just looked over there," eyewitness David Snow said. "I heard everything starting to fall apart on it. It was disintegrating. The tail rudder was just coming off the thing."
Both the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Authority are on scene investigating.
Mims was a deacon at the St. Anthony Padua Catholic Church. The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston released the following statement:
"Deacon Mike Mims was a beloved member of the St. Anthony of Padua parish community in The Woodlands and a faithful servant in the Permanent Diaconate of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. Our prayers and thoughts are with the family of Deacon Mims and the St. Anthony community."