ELGIN, Minn. – A crop-dusting helicopter became entangled in power lines and crashed and burned in a cornfield, killing the pilot. The pilot, Corey James Adcock, 40, was from Victoria County, Texas. The crash was two miles south of Elgin, on 75th Street Northeast near the Wabasha-Olmsted County line, about 3:50 p.m. The helicopter, a Robinson R-44, was engulfed flames when first-responders arrived. Adcock was already dead. A crop fire was quickly extinguished. Deputies said that although two power lines were ion the ground, a door-to-door check found no interruption of local service. There was, however,, a brief outage six miles away in Plainview.
Robinson R-44. The single-engine helicopter is widely used in crop-dusting and also police work worldwide. It weighs 1,500 pounds empty. More than 6,000 have been built at Robinson’s Torrance, California, plant since 1990. The craft can accommodate four people but usually only the pilot for crop-dusting.