Conroe chopper crash victim was church deacon

CONROE, TX (KTRK) -- One person is dead after a small helicopter came crashing down in the back yard of a Conroe home Friday.

The pilot who died in the crash on Northline Drive has been identified as Michael Gene Mimms, a 51-year-old resident of Conroe. According to Houston Community Newspaper partner The Woodlands Villager, Mimms was a deacon at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church and a prominent member of The Woodlands community. Neighbors say he often flew out of Montgomery County Airport.

State troopers said the crash happened around 12:30pm when the small helicopter crash-landed in a Conroe back yard.

Neither the owners of the house nor their children were inside when it happened.

Investigators have not determined how the helicopter crashed or why it went down, but did say it was a two-seater.

David Snow, who lives two houses down, said he was in his back yard when he saw the accident happen.

"It was disintegrating," he said "The rear of it the tail rotor was just coming off the baby. And it just started spinning around really fast and like it lost all power and dropped straight down. It looked like he was trying to land in the back yard."

FAA officials have said they will not be turning this over to the NTSB.