A crashed helicopter is seen Friday, June 30, 2006, in Chicago.
A helicopter being used to film scenes for a movie crashed in eastern Iowa on Friday, killing one person and critically injuring two others, authorities said.
The helicopter crashed just before 1 p.m., said Jim Saunders, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
Federal Aviation Administration officials in Kansas City said the helicopter, a Bell 206, may have crashed because of a "wire strike."
The Gazette reported on its Web site that the helicopter was filming a parade for the movie "The Final Season" about a high school baseball team.
Witnesses said the helicopter was carrying the pilot, a producer and a photographer when it hit power lines and crashed into a field about 10 miles southwest of Cedar Rapids, the newspaper reported.
The photographer Roland Schlotzhauer, 50, of Lenexa, Kan. was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Benton County sheriff's office. Pilot Richard Green, 72, of Hudson, and producer Tony Wilson, 49, of Dallas Center, were hospitalized in critical condition Friday night.
The helicopter was contracted through Ri Tel Copter Services Inc. in Hudson. A woman who answered the telephone at the company said a family member was piloting the aircraft and declined to comment.
"The Final Season" is based on the real-life story of the 1991 Norway High School baseball team.
It stars Sean Astin and Powers Boothe and is being directed by David Mickey Evans, who also directed the "The Sandlot."
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