Helicopter crashes into bay near Miami, killing 1 and seriously injuring 2

A helicopter crashed into Biscayne Bay near Miami today, killing one man and seriously injuring two others, police said. The helicopter was on a mission to photograph boats on the water, police said.

The Associated Press reported that the Miami-Dade County Sheriff's Office in Florida said the Robinson R44 II helicopter crashed near Biscayne Island near Noon this morning near Bill Baggs State Park.

Sheriff Cordeiro-Siduz said at an afternoon press conference that the two survivors had been sent to a nearby trauma center and were in "critical but stable condition."

Several local agency rescue personnel responded to the scene, as well as U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel.

Cordeiro-Siduz said when the Sheriff's Office Marine Patrol arrived at the scene, they found a member of the public trying to assist one of the victims in bringing him to shore. Miami firefighters tried to revive him but died.

At the same time, Border Protection agents located the other two men on the helicopter and handed them over to Miami-Dade County rescue personnel for medical treatment.

Cordeiro-Siduz said the cause of the crash remains under investigation. South Florida has received heavy rain over the past few days, but it's unclear whether the weather was a factor in the crash.

A Learjet 60 jet crashed near West Palm Beach, Florida on the 1st, killing all nine people on board. Investigators said weather conditions were one of the focuses of the investigation.