Three Apache Junction police officers rushed into the smoke-filled debris of a crashed helicopter on Tuesday and rescued the pilot and a flight nurse, police said Wednesday.
 
"It was very dangerous, and those three guys stepped into it,” said Sgt. Dick Virgil of the Apache Junction Police Department.

A third person on board the AirEvac helicopter, 26-year-old Doreen Renee Johnson of Queen Creek, died at the scene, Virgil said. She was a full-time employee of Southwest Ambulance and a part-time employee of AirEvac, Virgil said.

Helicopter pilot Susanna Corcoles and flight nurse Kelly Foster-Stopka were taken to Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn after the crash. Neither has life-threatening injuries, Virgil said.

Authorities spent Wednesday cleaning up the debris and investigating what happened.

The helicopter was landing in a parking lot at Apache Trail and Meridian Road about 10:40 p.m. Tuesday to pick up a patient who had fallen and suffered a head injury, authorities said.

Virgil said the helicopter approached from the east, flared and began its
descent. The three officers who had secured the landing zone observed the helicopter making a “side-to-side” movement, he said.

“At the very end, the chopper rotated to the right and did a nosedive into the parking lot,” Virgil said.

Investigators believe the helicopter had an altitude of 100 to 300 feet before it plunged.

“It hit one side harder than the other,” said George Petterson, air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. Why the crash killed Johnson, who was seated in the rear of the aircraft, has yet to be determined, he said.

Despite the smoke, an “obvious” fuel leak and a running engine on the helicopter, the three officers on the scene retrieved the two survivors and took them to safety, Virgil said.

Officers Steve Martin, Paul Newman and Adam Short will probably receive a commendation for their heroic action, Virgil said. Short and Martin have worked for the agency for about three years, though Martin is a retired officer from Minnesota, he said. Newman has more than five years on the force, he said.

Another helicopter was dispatched and picked up the patient with the head injury.

Donn Walker of the Federal Aviation Administration in California said the helicopter was a Eurocopter AS-350 owned by Petroleum Helicopters in Louisiana, which leases it to the air ambulance company. He could not provide the pilot's license information on Wednesday.

Petterson, who drove from Los Angeles early Wednesday, said a preliminary report on the crash would be posted in about five days on his agency's Web site, www.ntsb.gov.

The debris will be loaded on a flatbed truck and taken to a yard near Buckeye Road and 35th Avenue, where it will be examined by Petterson and representatives from Petroleum Helicopters, Eurocopter and the engine manufacturer, Turbomeca, he said.

East Valley Tribune - The Associated Press contributed to this report.