(September 18, 2010) MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. — A helicopter incident carrying an Audi film crew took place Friday morning near the 14,000-foot summit of Pikes Peak.

The film crew was shooting a test run of the “Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak,” a joint program involving Audi, the Electronic Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif., and Stanford University. The goal of the project involves ascending Pikes Peak autonomously without a driver behind the wheel to demonstrate the capabilities of advanced driver assistance systems and GPS.

The car was not involved in the incident.

No one was killed but four people were injured. The pilot was first thought to be critically injured and had to be airlifted off the mountain, but has since been downgraded to good condition and released. The others are considered to be in good condition and all were released from the hospital as well

The helicopter was chartered from Air Cam, a helicopter service in Denver. The company's president Jim Dirker was piloting the helicopter with a German film crew on board.

Further information on the helicopter incident will be released by the National Transportation Safety Board and local law enforcement officials. All research activities on Pikes Peak have been suspended. The research project will continue at a later date.