A Bell helicopter crashes in an Ellis County field. (credit: CBSDFW.COM)

ELLIS COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) – There were frightening moments for a pilot and passenger when a helicopter made an emergency landing in Ellis County Tuesday morning.

The aircraft, owned by Bell Helicopter, hit the ground hard.

“When the aircraft hit the ground it rolled onto its side,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford explained.

The 16-seat Bell 214 reportedly had a problem with the tail rotor.

In many cases the loss of a tail rotor can send a helicopter into an uncontrollable spin, but it isn’t known if that was the problem the pilot experienced.

“The FAA will be investigating to try and determine what happened,” Lunsford said.

The two-member crew had just taken off from the Bell plant in Arlington when the chopper went down. Neither person was seriously injured.

Lunsford said, “The aircraft sustained substantial damage.”

No one on the ground was injured.

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