A helicopter spun out of control and crashed into a pedestrian bridge along Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach on Saturday afternoon, horrifying nearby beachgoers and sending five people to the hospital.
Click Here to Subscribe to the California Political Review
The crash was reported just after 2 p.m. Oct. 11 across the street from the oceanfront Hyatt resort, when the chopper began to spiral and then slammed into a stairwell leading to a bridge that connects a beachfront parking lot to the hotel.
A Cars ‘N Copters on the Coast event was scheduled for the area on Sunday, and a “helicopter landing party” was underway on Saturday.
Two people in the helicopter and three people on the street – including, reportedly, a child – were transported to a hospital.
Video footage obtained by news freelancer OnScene.TV, below, shows the helicopter descending toward the street when it suddenly began spinning and then hit the stairwell to the bridge crossing PCH.
Part of the helicopter broke off before the crash. People watching and filming the chopper from the sand as it approached were astonished, some videos show, repeatedly hollering, “Oh my God,” after it began to spiral and then hit the cement.
On Saturday evening, Jerry Miller of Redlands confirmed in a telephone call that his son-in-law Eric Nixon was piloting the helicopter when it crashed.
“He’s in the hospital with some broken ribs, crushed vertebrae and several bruises,” said Miller, adding, “But I’m sorry, we have some things going on” before terminating the call.
Earlier, Rancho Cucamonga resident Jackson Etchert was in Huntington Beach for the Cars ‘N Copters event. He was standing on the bridge, about 100 feet away, he said, when the crash occurred.
“I noticed when the second one came, it was spinning weird,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Hmm, I wonder if it’s doing a trick.’ Then, I saw it spinning even faster, and I’m like, ‘Nope, that thing is crashing.’ ”
As he observed, “First the tail rotor snapped. Next thing I know I see something looked like it hit the main rotor blade.”
He shared a video with a closer look at the crash:
Speak Your Mind