One person was killed and three were injured late Monday morning when a Pima County Sheriff's Department helicopter crashed into the side of a mountain northwest of Tucson, officials said.
Loren Leonberger, a civilian pilot for the sheriff's department with several years of experience, was killed in the crash.
The four-person helicopter crew was scouting an area in the Ironwood National Forest for possible locations for radio communication towers when one of the passengers reported the aircraft had crashed about 11:30 a.m., said Chief Rick Kastigar, of the sheriff's department.
The crash occurred on the side of the Waterman Mountains west of Picture Rocks. The closest intersection is at West Avra Valley and North Waterman Mountain roads.
Three of the four passengers were taken from the crash site to University Medical Center about 2 p.m. The full extent of their injuries is unknown, but officials said earlier Monday that one of the survivors had life-threatening injuries.
About 2:30 p.m. officials confirmed that the fourth passenger had died in the crash. Rescuers escorted Leonberger's body from the mountain. A fire rescue vehicle lead by motorcycle officers and a squad car took Leonberger from the scene about 3 p.m.
Leonberger spent much of his life flying helicopters.
In February 1969 he entered the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot from June 1970 to June 1971. He achieved the rank of warrant officer. Leonberger served as a pilot in the U.S. Army National Guard from January 1972 to November 1991. In July 1978, Leonberger became an officer and a pilot with the Arizona Department of Public Safety where he served for twenty years, according to the sheriff's department.
In December 1998 he retired from the state DPS Air Rescue Unit and became a pilot with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office the same year.
He joined the Pima County Sheriff's Department in November 2008.
Leonberger was a state Department of Public Safety pilot in 1992 in a dramatic rescue in which he hovered expertly above the crash of Medivac helicopter that had smashed into a a rocky, snowy cliff in the Pinaleno Mountains near Safford. Susan Ben-Asher Newton and Dale Matthews, the nurse and pilot of the Medivac, were killed.
Glenn Velardi, a medic who survived the crash, spent the night waiting for rescue.
In dramatic fashion, then-deputy Tom Price and Dr. Richard Carmona rappelled to Valardi's side. Price helped Carmona rig himself into a harness with Velardi. Al Quezada, a DPS flight medic, helped direct the operation from the helicopter, which flew Carmona and Velardi, dangling and spinning from the end of a 75-foot line, to a safe landing site about a mile away.
Carmona went on to become U.S. Surgeon General.
Leonberger leaves behind a wife and twelve siblings, the sheriff's department said.
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