A helicopter that crash-landed downtown May 8 lost all power minutes before the incident, the pre-liminary findings of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation said Thursday.

The pilot landed the Robinson R22 Beta N5ZK on Fort Street Mall without serious injury to herself or her passenger.

The report does not identify the pilot, Julia Link, nor the passenger, Karl Hedberg, by name, but says that the pilot had taken up a commercial photographer to shoot photos of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

The helicopter had made two orbits of Punchbowl at about 3,000 feet when the engine "suddenly experienced a total loss of power," the report said.

The pilot went into autorotation and then steered the helicopter toward Fort Street, a one-way street that had no wires along the flight path, the report said.

With the ground rapidly approaching, the pilot began to "flare," or use the main rotors to reduce speed, "and the helicopter touched down on the road and skidded into a parked automobile," the report said.

That was at 3:20 p.m., about 25 minutes after takeoff from Hono­lulu Airport.

The preliminary report is consistent with comments that Link and Hedberg made to media in the days following the crash.

The preliminary report does not discuss possible causes, but the mechanic, Brant Swigart, owner of Hawaii Air Power Labs, told the Star-Advertiser on Thursday that he submitted a written affidavit to the NTSB earlier this week taking full responsibility for the accident.

He said he is taking steps to fulfill his promise to replace both the helicopter and the vehicle that was damaged when the helicopter slid into it.