Four Die in Arizona Helicopter Crash Into Slackline

Four people, including a pilot and three young women, died Friday when their private helicopter crashed into a remote mountainous area near Telegraph Canyon in central Arizona, authorities said. The incident occurred around 11 a.m. local time, about 64 miles east of Phoenix and south of the town of Superior, after the aircraft struck a suspended slackline strung across the rugged terrain.

The Pinal County Sheriff's Office received reports of the downed helicopter shortly after the crash and dispatched deputies, who visually located the wreckage in the challenging landscape. The MD 369FF helicopter had departed earlier that morning from Pegasus Airpark in Queen Creek, a community about 40 miles southeast of Phoenix. All four occupants perished at the scene, officials confirmed later Friday evening after search and rescue teams reached the site on foot.

Authorities identified the victims as the 59-year-old male pilot from Queen Creek and three female passengers, two aged 21 and one aged 22, who were family members. An eyewitness who called emergency services reported seeing the helicopter collide with a portion of the slackline, a recreational line approximately a kilometer long...