Five people were injured Saturday when a Bell helicopter of the type made popular by the 1980s television drama “Airwolf” crashed in Huntington Beach as the city readied for a car and helicopter show.
City police and fire crews responded shortly after 2 p.m. when the helicopter appeared to spin out of control before crashing onto palm trees and the stairwell of a pedestrian bridge connecting a beach parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway to the Hyatt Regency resort.
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Two people were pulled from the aircraft, and three people were injured on the ground, police said.
The helicopter was being piloted by owner Eric Nixon, who was bringing the 1980 Bell 222 to appear in the annual Cars ’n Copters show Sunday in Huntington Beach featuring exotic cars along with aircraft from private owners, law enforcement and the military. Helicopters flew in Saturday for a “landing party” event.
Nixon’s father-in-law, Jerry Miller, told the Orange County Register on Saturday night that Nixon was “in the hospital with some broken ribs, crushed vertebrae and several bruises.”
Videos taken at the scene appear to show the helicopter’s tail rotor fly off moments before the crash in front of hundreds of spectators. People can be heard in the video screaming and seen scrambling to evade debris.
In addition to Nixon and another person in the helicopter with him, a child and two adults were injured on the ground. All five were hospitalized, but no official information was released about their injuries as of early Sunday afternoon.
A GoFundMe account, which could not be independently verified, identified the youngest victim and said the boy was in a hospital with a collapsed lung and brain bleed.
In images obtained by KTLA, bystanders can be seen pulling a child from beneath the wreckage and whisking the boy away. The crash was “like something in a nightmare,” witness Kurt Johnston told KTLA.
A Federal Aviation Administration employee looks at the site where a helicopter crash-landed around 2:09 p.m. Saturday near the Cars ‘N Copters event in front of the Waterfront Beach Resort.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Nixon’s Instagram account said he and his passenger were safe after the crash. The account includes videos of Nixon performing stunts in helicopters. One pilot told NBC 4 that Nixon made a quick decision on Saturday.
“He chose to sacrifice the helicopter and put it on top of the palm trees, therefore avoiding cars and people that were there,” Esteban Jimenez said.
Nixon’s Bell 222 departed from Redlands Municipal Airport, according to the Flight Safety Foundation.
A cosmetically modified Bell 222 was the centerpiece of “Airwolf,” which revolved around a high-technology attack helicopter, code-named Airwolf, and its crew.
The crash has been reported to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, police said.
