One person is dead and another injured after a helicopter crashed just after takeoff at the Region of Waterloo International Airport on Monday morning.

The chopper appears to have lost power less than two kilometres from where it departed and began dropping rapidly around 11:30 a.m.

It then crashed into trees and hit a power line before it went down in a storm water pond on airport property and ended up partially submerged.

According to Waterloo Region police there were two passengers, a man and a woman, on board the helicopter when it went down.

One person was taken to Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ont. with spinal injuries before being airlifted to a Hamilton hospital.

Police say the other person succumbed to their injuries at the scene. No information has been released on the identities of those on board.

The crash occurred in a natural area near the intersection of Fountain Street North and Kossuth Road in Woolwich Township.

Airport fire and recue teams as well as fire crews from the City of Cambridge and Woolwich Township responded along with Waterloo Region police and EMS.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) was expected at the scene and the cause of the crash is under investigation. They will be assisted by local police.

The helicopter was a Robinson 22, a light-duty two-seater, owned by Great Lakes Helicopter Corp., a flight training school and charter company that operates at the airport.

CTV News has learned from government records that the helicopter that crashed appears to have been involved in a previous incident.

A chopper with the same serial number and of the same make was involved in a crash in April 2001 in a field north of Toronto.

The TSB report says the helicopter hit the ground and flipped on its side, sustaining substantial damage, but no one was injured.

Pilot error was blamed for the crash, but it belonged to a different company at the time.