A helicopter crashed in central Arkansas Sunday, killing a state conservation officer who was patrolling for poachers using spotlights to hunt deer at night.

Sgt. Monty Carmikle, 45, was in the Game and Fish Department helicopter when the Vietnam-era craft went down in a field northeast of Quitman about 1 a.m., says commission spokesman Keith Stephens. The pilot, Jerry Fryar of Ozark, a contractor, was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The cause of the crash was not known, Stephens says. Officials were to interview the pilot.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration (NTSB) arrived at the crash site about 60 miles north of Little Rock. The Bell OH-58 helicopter was moved to a hangar at the North Little Rock airport.

Stephens says the agency had received reports that someone was deer hunting at night. Carmikle and Fryar began patrolling by air, while other officers worked from the ground.

"It's my understanding they [Carmikle and Fryar] actually saw some headlights, and they were going down to try to see where they could head these guys off before they got out of the woods," Stephens says. It was then that the helicopter apparently crashed in a cow pasture.

As soon as other officers on the ground realized what had happened, they rushed to the scene to assist. The suspected poachers got away.

Carmikle, of Heber Springs, had worked for the state agency since 1985. He was the first wildlife officer to die in the line of duty since two officers died in a plane crash in the 1970s, Stephens says.