(AP) -- State police say a trooper forced to crash land his helicopter near a highway in the Southern Tier suffered non-life threatening injuries.
New York State Police say Trooper Thomas Shultz was returning to Batavia from a missing person search at about 10:30 a.m. Friday when a mechanical emergency forced a "controlled but powerless descent."
The Bell 430 helicopter made a hard landing near Bath in Steuben County off of Interstate 86.
Police say the 41-year-old trooper was injured and was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.
The cause of the incident is under investigation. Shultz had been an Army combat pilot.
Local media report that the missing woman, 28-year-old Melissa E. Sherry of Hammondsport, was found dead Friday morning in a field. She was reported missing on Sunday.
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