FJSA officer describes Black Hawk crash

Scot Walker '90, publications manager for the Association of Former Students and FJSA's membership chair, described for an Eagle story Monday's helicopter crash on Duncan Field that killed Zachary Cook '08 and injured four others:

Scot Walker, whose campus office overlooks the field several hundred feet away, had been watching the helicopters come and go throughout the day -- exactly one week before classes were set to resume for the spring semester.

"At first, it looked like he was hot-dogging and then very quickly it was obvious he was in trouble and not messing around," Walker said of the crash that took place just before 3 p.m. "As fast as your brain could process that it crashed, it was like, holy cow, did I just see that?"

...

"All of the sudden he dropped straight back down into the ground," he said, estimating that it was no more than 100 to 150 feet in the air when it encountered problems.

Walker said the vehicle dropped upright, but that pieces of propellors and debris jetted out in all directions.

"There was a bunch of people on Duncan Field and everyone went running and diving for cover," Walker said. "I grabbed the phone and called 911."