An employee for the Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix and an experienced helicopter pilot survived a crash allegedly caused by a tail rotor failing less than three hundred feet above a collection of onlookers and videographers at an event Saturday. Accidents at these kinds of parking lot weekend car shows are not rare, though this is the first time I’ve seen one involving rotorcraft.
The ‘Cars N’ Copters On The Coast‘ event in Huntington Beach, along the coast of Southern California, was billed as a mix of hypercars, exotics, and at least ten helicopters. Because no one wants a bunch of helicopters buzzing in on an early Sunday morning, the Saturday part of the event is the fly-in.
One of the helicopters that was set to attend was a 10-seat 1980 Bell 222 piloted by owner Eric Nixon, who also runs Nixon Helicopters. Based on Instagram posts, the passenger was Kristin Holmes, an employee of the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix and an amateur off-road racer.
According to a post from her fiancé, Kristin got the ride as a surprise for her birthday:
Just wanted to get on and update everyone from the helicopter crash going viral today, the video is painful to see on every tv screen. we wanted to surprise Kristin with a passenger ride with a family friend Eric Nixon to the car show this morning for her birthday and meet her there in Huntington Beach. At the end of the run The Heli had a malfunction with rear tail rotor causing the spiral to the ground from 100ft or so. Eric is an amazing pilot and human being and did what he could to keep Kristin safe. Kristin has a broken ankle and compressed spine but is in good hands, Eric suffered spinal cord / sternum & rib fractures but is talking and toughing it out.
As the helicopter she was in approached the landing zone, you can see something go wrong. According to that post, it was the tail rotor, although the NTSB has not yet posted an investigation or provided any findings.
To make matters worse, the helicopter was close to a horde of onlookers with phones and cameras–a common site at these sorts of events.
The video above is from the local ABC affiliate and shows most of the angles out on the web. From one angle, it seems like the actual rotor itself separates from the tail section during the landing attempt, which would mean the helicopter would no longer have control. Based on another angle, it appears the pilot realized the issue and attempted to pull out of the landing.
Moments before the crash, the pilot seemed to be fully in control, and even buzzed the nearby hotel:
View this post on Instagram
The out-of-control chopper then bends towards a set of palm trees at the entrance to the pedestrian bridge connecting to the two nearby hotels. Somehow, though the fuselage embedded itself in the trees, the pilot and his passenger were able to be pulled from the wreckage. Additionally, it doesn’t appear as though a fire occurred.
An update from the passenger’s fiancé shows her leaving the hospital this morning with a foot brace and giving a thumbs up.
What About The Bystanders?
Another angle of the crash shows a group of people with cameras and phones running from the accident. I won’t share the video because it’s too disturbing, but in one reel, it’s clear that a person ended up trapped under the body of the helicopter. At a press conference following the accident, the authorities wouldn’t comment on the condition of the bystanders filming below.
At least one of the other injuries appears to be from falling debris, based on reports.
According to the organizers of the event, which raises funds for the Huntington Beach Police & Community Foundation, Cars N’ Copters will continue as planned:
We are sending our prayers out to all involved in the unfortunate incident today. Our plan for now is to move forward with our event tomorrow, Sunday, October 12th. We will advise everyone at the earliest possible opportunity if that plan changes.
This obviously could have been a lot worse, although the condition of the individuals struck by the helicopter remains unclear. It’s a terrible reminder that a long lens is a good investment if you’re going to be filming around fast cars, planes, helicopters, or anything else where the margin of control at close range is so low.
Top photo: ABC7 Screengrab
I wrote this as a comment on a breakdown video of the crash:
Looks like an aerial version of a LA Burnout street meet. I suggest don’t take aerial rides from a questionable business
I do not take this as a good sign. It could be that they need to ID someone, notify next of kin, etc. It could also be that one or more minors sustained injuries and they don’t want to release information that might be identifying. But declining comment certainly doesn’t sound like minimal or minor injuries to me.
Of course, “trapped under the body of the helicopter” also sounds like major injuries or fatality, too.
When this landed in my FB feed, I just assumed it was AI slop.
When I worked offshore they sent us to “helicopter crashed underwater training” or whatever it was called. They put you in a helicopter fuselage over a pool. Each of us got a window seat and a dude in scuba gear sitting next to us. You buckle in then the fuselage gets lowered into the water and turned upsidedown. Once it’s completely under scuba dude taps your leg and you turn to release the window, then you release your seatbelt and swim out through the window to the surface. Honestly it was a lot of fun but I don’t know how practical it was. I’m pretty sure if the real helicopter went down it would probably be a bit more chaotic.
At the very least in a real crash you’d probably be doing those things with injuries.
Also in a crumpled helicopter with no scuba dude and everyone screaming in Portuguese… I’m sure it would be fine 😉
That training was still fun though, we also got to learn how to flip the life raft over and then put on dry suits and jump of a 5m platform. Day 2 we put on firefighter gear and put out a training fire. Day 3 was the CPR dummy.
10/10 would recommend.
The biggest thing to learn from that training is to grab hold of something near the exit before releasing your seatbelt. The rest it not to panic. Easier said than done.
I’ve always been comfortable in water so keeping calm in the simulator was easy peasy. Crashing into the waves 100KM offshore Brazil in a fiery death may have made that “not panicking” part a bit more difficult 😉
Yup, HEED.
https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=527267443357097&vanity=CHPOfficeofAirOperationsFresnoAirUnit
That’s a little different than the one I did. We were in a full-size simulated fuselage lowered by a crane over the pool instead of just a metal cage. There were four of us in there each with our own scuba dudes but we didn’t have our own scuba, we were just expected to hold our breath. We had real windows too that we had to release and push out before undoing our seatbelts and swimming out.
I just found this video on YT showing the facility where I was trained.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aykklxrcIw8
My brother did his training on the day of his birthday several years ago and seemed to enjoy it. He was training for chopper flights over the North Sea (ie north of Scotland), where you have to wear a survival suit just to get onto the helicopter, because without it you’ll be dead of exposure in about two minutes.
We did the survival suits and how to link up like sea otters to be more visible and keep together. My rig was off the coast of Brazil though so hypothermia wasn’t a real concern.
On no, Air Wolf crashed!!
(Same model helicopter.)
That’s what I thought, right after Mustangs aren’t enough – now we’ve got helicopters taking out people. In all seriousness, the pilot did a great job with what he had to work with, it must of been very disorienting basicly flying in a blender.
The original airwolf was also destroyed in a crash not long after the show ended. It was being used as an ambulance in europe and crashed during a thunderstorm. If I recall correctly the crew sadly didn’t make it. I don’t remember the official cause of the crash, but I remember hearing that the 222 was maintenance heavy and not the most robust design.
That’s the second helicopter crash in less than a week. Previous accident involved a medevac Eurocopter EC130 that went down in Sacramento a few days ago.
The irony is that the event was sponsored by a personal injury law firm.
The trees absorbed some of the fall and impact, maybe reduced the severity of the spinal compression injuries, still not good. Those fly by’s of the hotel balconies cannot bode well for the future of the owners pilot license, once he has recovered. I wonder if FAA will take in account his attempts at a controlled crash landing away from people on the ground.
Honestly, it doesn’t even matter if he loses his license. When you lose your license, you’re allowed to apply to get it back in only 12 months.
Remember that Trevor Jacobs guy, the fella who allegedly crashed a plane on purpose for clicks, and then allegedly destroyed of the evidence? Even he was able to get his license back.
“Allegedly” not required:
Oh, oh my gosh. It has been so long that I sort of forgot that he was brazen enough to admit it.
He would later publish videos of him flying planes before he actually got his license back. But I suppose why not, since apparently, the most you’ll get is a slap on the wrist, anyway.
Did they fire everyone who works for the FAA? Sorry just sarcasm. I hope everyone at the FAA is still employed.
The FAA is kind of notorious for arbitrary and capricious decisions when private pilot licenses are involved. It’s a big point of contention in the aviation community.
My first reply from Mercedes! I was having a cranky Monday work morning on a Tuesday, but now I can face the rest of the day. Thank you ma’am!!
I think he wasn’t the only pilot doing close fly bys there. If I’m not mistaken that was by design, as part of the event, with the hotel balconies/roof a designated viewing location.
[checks] they bill it as an “exclusive landing party” at the “Offshore9 Rooftop Lounge”.
Might still lose his license. Other pilots might also get spanked.
“We are sending our prayers out to all involved”
Yeah, that’s going to make a big bloody difference xD
I know it’s trendy to hate on “thoughts and prayers” comments, but uhh, what else are they supposed to do in this instance?
Say “Well that sucks, hope it never happens again. Maybe we can figure out what needs to be done to prevent it.”
Instead of, to paraphrase, “God works in mysterious ways, welp, nothing we can do here”.
No matter the scenario, “thoughts and prayers” is always the laziest and dumbest response.
Moreso when the person saying it has power and authority to help prevent such things from happening, but doesn’t.
Comedian Anthony Jeselnik does a great bit on “thoughts and prayers”, saying basically that the person saying it is just seeking attention for themselves; “don’t forget about me, I’m sad too”.
Agree. I’m so sick of that being used as the default reply to every tragedy. We. are. not. a. christian nation; nor jewish, muslim, hindu, jain, sikh, shinto, and on and on so just give the best aid and support as a community can. That’s true caring and concern. sheesh
Being gifted a helicopter ride is something I’d never want to get, given the number of fatal accidents in these things. Glad they survived.
And in other news: Jalopnic is running an article on how to get stains out of your hoodliner. Yes, hoodliner. WTH? All AI generated. What a shithole it is now. Just like the country! Thanks AI!!!??&*@!!!?!
I had the chance to be given a ride in a Bell 212 quite loaded [9 passengers + 1metric ton of equipment and gear], and it went smoothly enough for me to be around 30+ years later.
Now there wasn’t any tree around to hit as it was over Greenland North East Coast (between Constable Pynt airstrip and Scoresby Sund settlement) which might have helped seing how low we wer flying at times.
This reads like a book cover teaser! Were you part of the ultra secret underground missile complex that we never told Greenland about, abandoned, and they recently uncovered?
no, I was at the opposite side and way south doing an Alpinism Expedition trying to climb the Petermans Berg.
And knowledge of Camp Century is not, I’ve known about it for more than a decades now…
It doesn’t surprise me a bit that my Intel is decades out of date.
Can’t find decent minions these days.
What, you like a stained hoodliner? 🙂
This video on reddit shows what looks like the tail rotor and gearbox departing the aircraft soon after things start to go wrong.
https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1o4uemg/another_angle_of_the_huntington_heli_crash/
The NTSB report should be interesting.
That said, this crash ended about as well as could be hoped for a catastrophic loss of control and/or tail rotor. If the control loss had happened during that close pass (waaaay to close as far as I’m concerned) to the balconies there would be a lot more injuries and probably a few fatalities.
You’d think the Los Angeles area would have learned an indelible lesson from Vic Morrow and the kids but no.
Blancolirio reported that one of the linkages that control the tail rotor either broke or came off (you could see it dangling), which would cause lack of control and bad vibration resulting in parts flying off. Apparently the cure is to get off the power immediately, but few pilots have ever experienced the situation.
He also commented that normally you’re not allowed to go within 500 ft of people due to the possibility of mechanical failure, but that they might have had FAA approval for that event. Fortunately, our government flight safety personnel will be right on it, as soon as they’re recalled or rehired.
Nice! Was hoping he’d comment.
I honestly can’t remember if I’ve ever been in a helicopter. I seem to think that I remember taking a short ride in one off of a Manhattan pier in the very early 1970s when I’d have been less than ten years old, but the ‘memory’ is so fuzzy it might just be a figment of my imagination. They’re fascinating of course (helicopters, not figments of my imagination) but like small, non-commercial aircraft, they don’t inspire confidence in me, what with my current keen awareness of gravity, honed as it is by middle age. Unless there were some pressing need, I’d probably decline a ‘copter ride now, unless it were something that exuded a strong feeling of competence. I don’t expect anyone to offer me a free ride in anything, so my qualifier is moot of course.
I wonder if the splines/arbor or the yoke itself broke? Scary.
OH NO! Airwolf crashed!
Since no one died, the person running the press conference about the crash needs to be wearing an all white suite, black eye patch and cane. Lean into the Airwolf angle since the helicopter modified for that show was also a Bell 222.
Then that person can explain why “St. John” is pronounced “Sinjin”
I believe that was a result of a show star being drunk through a solid 95% of his scenes.
This is why it’s not a good idea to wait for January to Michael down your Vincents.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nLB4dU3Yc6M
Amazing and heroic work by the pilot, pulling out of the landing to avoid hitting the crowd at the main event and then finding a safer place to crash-land.
In Black Hawk Down, the writer remarked with amazement how Mogadishans would run toward the sound of gunfire. Not so amazing now that everyone has a video camera and a system that rewards us for taking the riskiest shots.
I assume they ran toward the sound of gunfire in case there was any good loot dropped by the dead.
One place you would never find me is in a helicopter. I’d jump outta 5 planes before I got in 1 helicopter.
Hell I’d rather jump out of a plane over Normandy on June 6, 1944 than getting on medevac flight.
The only time being a paratrooper was iffier than medevac was in Arnhem, and that had nothing to do with the jumping part.
We may need to start the Autogyrotopian.com
It might be a teeny bit niche;
I have one and today was one of those days, heavy mist thick like breathing autumn pearl sky that is just in reach but not sun touched yet. Aged Rotax engine splutter splutter roar hum take off into the shiny grey just go the mist will clear before the fuel runs out five in the morning slow and steady this is not the day to die this is why you have this toy watch the mist burn off from above land that is embedded
with every step you have taken unfolding beneath you cold but warming yes that is the field the one by the house it was not there before but now it is the mist has cleared hot whisky toddy and scrambled eggs.
I don’t understand, if he hit the rocket boosters then the rotors would disconnect when he hit supersonic.
How dare you have an article involving a Bell 222 and make no reference to Airwolf!!!
Ha! Between that show and Blue Thunder…
I know, right?
Glad I’m not the only one who, when viewing the other video of the flyby, was like “where’s the theme?! Da dadadada dadadada…” Or expected that awesome howling when it passed.
Sometimes when riding my motorbike down twisty roads I sing the Airwolf theme to myself.
That howl noise was great, but I haven’t got the throat for it.
There’s a hilarious Conan O’Brien interview with Bryan Cranston (who was on it) where they discuss the show, and O’Brien claims he listens to the theme every morning to get ready for the day.
I need to set it as my morning alarm tune.
Imagine how much more I’ll get done every day!
Tire pressures are so important.
Maybe… maybe too soon?
Like thoughts and prayers? Perhaps air shows could be at air fields? Just saying. Oshkosh pretty much has this handled and the idea of visiting if it included some amazing cars would be a plus
Good thing BMW doesn’t make helicopters. Or Dog-Forbid – *Ford*. Imagine the carnage at Copters and Coffee if there were rotary-winged Mustangs. <shudder>
Maybe the helicopter was made of steel and aluminum recycled from a cursed Mustang.