CABLE, Wis. (AP) &045; A Minnesota mother and her son taking a festival helicopter ride over their family cabin in northern Wisconsin died along with the pilot when the craft hit a power line and crashed into Hammil Lake, authorities said.

&uot;In fact they crashed virtually in front of their own cabin,&uot; Bayfield County Sheriff Robert Follis said.

The helicopter had been giving rides at a fall festival when the crash happened in the town of Drummond about 11 a.m. Saturday, he said.

The helicopter may have struck the power line with its main rotor shaft, Follis said. Underwater video showed some of the power line appeared to be wrapped around the shaft below the rotor, he said.

Killed were Marnie Beth Ruliffson, 44, and her 13-year-old son Andrew Thomas Stockwell, from Shorewood, Minn., and pilot Mark Gerard Blanchard, 27, of Portland, Ore., Follis said.

The helicopter took off from FallFest in Cable, about 12 miles south of the crash, he said.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Paulson, who was off-duty at the time and lives a mile and a half from crash scene, heard the helicopter overhead and the subsequent crash, called 911 and drove to the lake, Follis said.

&uot;He drove by a couple of lakes. He had a feeling from the sound that it went into the water,&uot; the sheriff said. &uot;Then a call came in that there was something floating in the lake and he was right there.&uot;

Paulson commandeered a fishing boat from a lake resident who was unaware of the crash and about to go fishing.