A helicopter crashed into an apartment complex in Houston early Saturday, killing a police officer, who was the son of a city council member, Houston police said. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the pilot was undergoing surgery, and they are hopeful he will survive.
Houston police identified the victim as Tactical Flight Officer Jason Knox, 35, a father of two. A procession of police department vehicles escorted Knox’s body from the hospital to the medical examiner’s office just before 8 a.m. Saturday, CBS News affiliate KHOU reported.
“We celebrate all Jason embodied as a committed HPD officer and pilot who fully embraced his job and we celebrate Jason as he was outside of his work – a devoted husband, a loving father and our only son whom we cherished every day,” said his father, Houston City Council Member Michael Knox, in a statement. “Where there is great love, there is great loss. We love Jason with all of our hearts, as we always have, and we will keep all that he is alive for his children.”
According to Acevedo, Knox and the pilot were responding to a report of bodies in a bayou when the helicopter crashed near an apartment building in north Houston. Acevedo said the pilot was able to avoid hitting the apartment building, which would have most likely resulted in more causalities.
Police responded around 2 a.m. and found Knox and the pilot trapped in the wreckage. Acevedo said it took nearly an hour to cut them out of the wreckage, KHOU reported. They were both taken to a nearby hospital, where Knox was pronounced dead.
No one on the ground was injured.
The police department helicopter, which is named 75 Fox, had flown over the graduation of several cadets the morning before, KHOU reported. The Federal Aviation Administration said the helicopter was completely destroyed.
