Five people were injured when a helicopter spiraled out of control and crashed into a palm tree as it was arriving for a car show in Huntington Beach, California, on Saturday afternoon.
The crash happened at around 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, a day before the annual Cars ’N Copters event was scheduled to occur. The helicopter involved was associated with the Car show, as reported in a joint press release by the Huntington Beach Fire Department and Police Department.
Five people were injured and taken to the hospital, with two having to be pulled out of the wreckage of the helicopter and three being injured as bystanders. The crash has been reported to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, and an investigation is ongoing.
The helicopter was a Bell 222 with tail number registered as N222EX and departed from Redlands Municipal Airport per the Flight Safety Foundation.
As reported by The Autopian, the aircraft belonged to Nixon Helicopters and was piloted by owner Eric Nixon.
Nixon has been confirmed as the pilot by his father-in-law, Jerry Miller, to the Orange County Register, and on his own social media post on Nixon Helicopters’ Instagram account.
The popular beach location, ahead of a large social event, had no lack of spectators for the crash yesterday, which led to multiple angles being captured of the crash. Los Angeles ABC 7 compiled a selection of the videos for their Saturday evening report.
Before the crash on Saturday, the Cars ’N Copters Instagram account announced that six of the 12 helicopters had already landed ahead of the event.
This is the seventh year of the event, which features a dozen helicopters, more than 10 hypercars, 150 exotics, and draws a crowd of 25,000 people, according to the event’s website.
The helicopter crashed in a beach parking lot between Twin Dolphins Drive and Beach Boulevard. The city of Huntington Beach and event organizers have agreed that the event can still happen.
“We are sending our prayers out to all involved in the unfortunate incident today,” organizers said in a Facebook post on Saturday evening. “We plan to move forward with our event tomorrow, Sunday, October 12th. We will advise everyone at the earliest possible opportunity if that plan changes.”
Los Angeles NBC 4 shared eye witness reports from two men in the audience on Saturday, including a pilot.
“He looked at the crowd, and I think he wanted to put people at ease that he wasn’t in really bad shape or whatnot,” Darrell Hllet told NBC 4. “So he gave the thumbs up, and a lot of people in the crowd, including us, clapped and cheered for him.”
“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, pilot, told NBC 4.
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