David Tulis / AP

Law enforcement personnel embrace early Sunday as others investigate the scene of an Atlanta Police Department helicopter crash that killed two officers aboard.

Updated at 5:09 p.m. ET: Federal aviation officials on Sunday were investigating what caused a police helicopter to crash on a street in northwest Atlanta, killing the two officers aboard.

The officers were using the helicopter to search for a missing 9-year-old boy on Saturday night. Witnesses said the helicopter was flying low and clipped power lines as it crashed to the ground near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. and Hamilton E. Holmes drives, WXIA-TV reported. 

The boy was found safe shortly after the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. No one on the ground was hurt.

The officers were identified Sunday as Richard J. Halford, 48, and Shawn A. Smiley, 40.

Records with the Federal Aviation Administration showed the helicopter was a Hughes OH-6A manufactured in 1967, according to The Associated Press. The Hughes has historically been a military workhorse.

A witness, Ravien Walker, told Channel 2 Action News: “I noticed something falling out of the sky. It hit the power line and it hit the ground. I jumped out of my car and ran because I was really close to it. It could have fell right down on top of my car.”

Another witness, Darryl James, told The Associated Press, “For that time of night, there was nobody on the street for some odd reason. The helicopter hit in the middle of the street with no traffic.”

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An Atlanta police helicopter crashed late Saturday, killing two officers, police said.

Police Chief George Turner confirmed the deaths at a news conference, NBC station WXIA of Atlanta reported. There were no injuries on the ground. The victims' names were not released.

"One of our helicopters went down and two officers were killed," police spokesman Carlos Campos told Reuters. 

WXIA reported that witnesses said the helicopter hit power lines before crashing about 10:30 p.m. in northwest Atlanta. The helicopter was searching for a missing 9-year-old boy, police said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the aircraft crashed near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. and Hamilton E. Holmes drives. Power was out in the area.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating, WXIA said.

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Rain and snow at Mount Rainier in Washington state on Friday were preventing a helicopter from recovering the body of a national park ranger who fell 3,700 feet to his death during the rescue of four climbers. The National Park Service identified the ranger as Nick Hall. 

Hall was on Rainier's northeast side at about 13,700 feet when he fell around 5 p.m. local time Thursday as he was helping the climbers aboard a helicopter, the service said.

"As the first of the climbers were being evacuated by helicopter, Mount Rainier climbing ranger Nick Hall fell, sliding more than 3,000 feet down the side of the mountain," the service said in a statement.

"He did not respond to attempts to contact him and was not moving. High winds and a rapidly lowering cloud ceiling made rescue efforts extremely difficult," the service added. "Climbers reached Ranger Hall several hours after the incident began and found him to be deceased." 

Three of the climbers were able to be airlifted by 9 p.m. but the fourth had to spend the night on the mountain "in a safe location, with Mount Rainier National Park climbing rangers," the service stated Thursday night.

National Park Service

Nick Hall, far left, poses with other Mount Rainier Climbing Rangers during a training session on May 4.

On Friday morning, the climber and two rangers started to walk down and made it to a camp at 9,500 feet by early afternoon.

Visibility was poor Friday, with rain showers at lower elevation and snow above 10,000 feet. As a result, the helicopter was grounded and rangers hoping to get to where Hall perished were also making little progress.

The climbers, two men and two women from Waco, Texas, had been walking on the Emmons Glacier Route on their way down from the summit when two of them slipped and fell into a crevasse, said Kevin Bacher, a park spokesman.

One of the climbers had a working cell phone and was able to notify park rangers. Rescue crews on foot located the climbers and lifted the two out of the crevasse, then began the process of transferring the climbers to a helicopter.

"The two women on the end went into the crevasse," Bacher said, "but the two men were able to stop the group, and that prevented anyone from falling to the bottom of the crevasse."

All four had bruises, and possibly some broken bones, but none of the injuries seemed life-threatening, Bacher said.

The climber still on the mountain is Stacy Wren, 22. The three hospitalized are Noelle Smith, Stuart Smith and Ross Vandyke, the park said.

The Waco Tribune-Herald reported that Smith is a Waco attorney who has climbed the highest mountains on all seven continents and has been to both poles.

Hall, a four-year veteran of Mount Rainier's climbing program and a native of Patten, Maine, was a former Marine sergeant and had also worked as an avalanche forecaster at Yellowstone National Park, according to his Facebook page.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar praised Hall as a ranger "who heroically gave his life to save others". 

Hall's age was initially reported as 34 but later corrected to 33.

Hall's is the second death of a Mount Rainier ranger this year. Margaret Anderson was shot dead on New Year's Day at a roadblock when she stopped a man suspected in a Seattle shooting.

Moreover, four Rainier visitors, two climbers and two campers, are presumed dead after failing to return from the mountain in January.

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MOBILE, Ala.  -- Authorities have hauled the wreckage of a Coast Guard helicopter out of Alabama waters but did not find the bodies of three missing crew members inside.

U.S. Coast Guard officials say the search continues for the missing men. A fourth man was found after the crash but died.

Coast guard officials identified the missing as Petty Officer 3rd Class Andrew Knight, Lt. j.g. Thomas Cameron, and Lt. Cmdr. Dale Taylor.

The MH-65C helicopter crashed on a training mission Tuesday evening near Point Clear in Mobile Bay.

Chief Petty Officer Fernando Jorge was found unresponsive in the water and later was declared dead.

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Updated at 5:05 a.m. ET: MOBILE, Alabama -- One crew-member died and three were missing after a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crashed off Alabama's coast on Tuesday.

The Coast Guard said in a statement early Wednesday that one crew-member was found unresponsive and was later declared dead.

Petty Officer Second Class Elizabeth Bordelon said the MH-65 Dolphin crashed just after 8:30 p.m. local time (9:30 p.m. ET) in Mobile Bay near Point Clear, Alabama.

The flight originated from the Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Bordelon said.

A response cutter from Dauphin Island and two additional MH-65s from New Orleans were dispatched to assist in the search, she said.

A Mobile County Sheriff's Flotilla crew, an HU-144 twin-engine aircraft and an Alabama Marine Resources vessel were also activated.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the crew-members during this difficult time," the Coast Guard said in a statement, adding that it was working through the night to find the three missing crew-members.

"This is our family we're talking about," Bordelon told the Mobile Press-Register.

The Press-Register reported that winds were southeast at around 15 miles per hour and the water temperature 63 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday night. Average water depth in the area averages at 13 feet, the newspaper said.

According to an overview on the U.S. Coast Guard website, the MH-65 Dolphin is its "most ubiquitous aircraft."

It is "certified for operation in all-weather and night-time operations, with the exception of icing conditions," the overview says.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

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Jeremy Harrison / AP

Joint Base Lewis-McChord spokesman Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield gives a brief statement about the crash of two Army OH-58 Kiowa helicopters Monday.

Updated at 4:15 a.m. ET

SEATTLE - Two Army helicopters crashed Monday night at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in an accident that killed four soldiers, a military spokesman said late Monday.

The two-seat OH-58D Kiowa Warrior observation helicopters crashed after 8 p.m. (11 p.m. ET) in the southwest training area of the sprawling base near Tacoma, Wash., according the Army.

KIRO TV reported that local fire crews reached the crash sites, but there were no survivors. The victims were not immediately identified, even by unit, pending notification of relatives.

It was not immediately clear whether the aircraft collided or crashed separately.

"We don't have details on what actually occurred," base spokesman J.C. Mathews said. "That will be part of the investigation."

He was unable to say whether the wreckage of the two helicopters was found in close proximity.

The crash site is geographically closest to the civilian community of Rainier, which is south of Tacoma, Mathews said. There were no injuries on the ground, KCPQ TV reported.

There are more than 40,000 military personnel stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and with dependent family members the population is 100,000, KCPQ TV said.

Base officials secured the crash site late Monday and immediately began an investigation. The Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., will lead the overall investigation into the accident, base spokesman Joe Piek said.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, friends and loved ones of the soldiers involved in this tragic accident," said Maj. Gen. Lloyd Miles, acting senior Army commander at Lewis-McChord and deputy commanding general of I Corps.

"We will conduct a thorough investigation into this incident, and we will do everything in our power to support the families of the brave soldiers who died this evening," he said.

Temperatures at the base were around the mid-20 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday evening, and local media reported a likelihood of fog in the woods where the crash was said to have occurred.

The Kiowa Warrior is a single-engine, four-bladed aircraft used for armed reconnaissance, Mathews said. It's often called a scout helicopter.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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LAS VEGAS -- A Kansas couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary were among five people who died in the crash of a tour helicopter in a remote canyon outside Las Vegas.

Residents of the small, western Kansas town of Utica learned Thursday that Delwin and Tamara Chapman died when the helicopter crashed Wednesday during a sunset tour of the Las Vegas Strip and Hoover Dam.

Ron Solze, whose son is married to one of the Chapmans' four daughters, said the couple went to Las Vegas to celebrate their anniversary and renew their wedding vows.

Solze says Delwin Chapman ran a construction company and his wife recently closed her hairstyling shop. He says they were well-known and well-liked in Utica, a town of about 160 people.

Authorities say all five bodies were recovered from the crash site Thursday. The area is accessible only by helicopter and four-wheel-drive.

Meanwhile, the family of the pilot, Landgon Nield, released a statement to The Associated Press. It reads in part:

"Landon was a beloved husband and father. He is the father of two wonderful children. Landon was raised in a family of 14 children. He was a loving and caring man. The Nield family's thoughts and prayers are with the families who lost loved ones in the terrible, tragic accident. The family would like to thank the emergency and rescue personnel who responded to the accident and to thank the park ranger that stayed at the wreck site all night until the bodies could be recovered."

Nield's family set up a Wells Fargo fund in his name Thursday to help his wife and kids.

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