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By Paul Takahashi (contact) 
Published Monday, Sept. 24, 2012 | 5:25 p.m.
Updated Monday, Sept. 24, 2012 | 7:43 p.m.
A Metro Police helicopter on a routine training exercise made a "hard landing" at the North Las Vegas Airport on Monday, sending its two occupants to the hospital, officials said.
A MD500 helicopter was attempting to land about 4 p.m. when it made a "hard landing" near Citizen Avenue and Simmons Street, just east of the airport, said Metro Police spokesman Jose Hernandez.
KLAS Channel 8 caught footage of the helicopter on its side with its rotors damaged.
Two occupants – a pilot and a second officer – were transported to University Medical Center to be observed, Metro Police spokesman Marcus Martin said. They suffered no injuries, he said.
The North Las Vegas Airport remained open and operational throughout the incident, said McCarran International Airport spokesman Chris Jones. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the helicopter landing, he said.
A preliminary report on the cause of the helicopter accident may be released within a week or two, FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said. However, it usually takes NTSB officials months to come up with a probable cause for accidents, he added.
If it's not on it's gear or skids then it's not really a landing! Hard or not!
I as other AOPA members do have a saying with-in the Avaition arena. It goes like this "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one" "Any landing that you can taxi from is a better one still"
Your right copter might be a total loss. (glad the people are alright) Take it down to the pawn shop maybe Chumley's there an they can unload it?
I wonder if a lighter than air drone like Ogden Utah uses or a system of cameras might be safer and less costly. I wonder if their insurance will go up again? A higher level observation airplane might make more sense
A friend of mine died in a police chopper crash. It was the last straw, the city abandoned them just after. Too much liability.
Let's hear it for unmanned drones.
2 Copters medevac crashed on the way back from Pahrump to Vegas. In California the CHP upgraded to IFR copters after a lot of crashes. We need an evaluation of copter use.
Also, in Europe they use boats for water rescue, Holland, Rhine, Danube etc..... the copter rescue for floods is not efficient. Remember when Metro was "rescuing people" in the NW Valley. Half the people said they did not need rescue (standing in 3 ft of water). No more copter showboating.