A cow elk knocked down a helicopter while its crew was capturing the animals for the state in eastern Wasatch County.
The Wasatch County Search and Rescue was called out to Current Creek in help the downed helicopter at 4:38 p.m on Monday.
The two-person crew was in the process of capturing the elk with a net when the animal “somehow jumped up and hit the tail rotor of the chopper,” according to a Facebook post from the search and rescue crew.
“This almost severed the tail rotor,” the post continued, and the helicopter crashed. “Not something you see everyday, when an elk brings down a chopper.