Helicopter in deadly California crash didn't send distress call, official says
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- A helicopter that crashed in Southern California Tuesday, killing three people on board and injuring two others, including a man on the ground, didn't send a distress call before plummeting into a home in a gated community, a federal investigator said Wednesday. The cause of the crash remains unknown and could take months to determine.
The aircraft was barely recognizable after the crash. Its crushed metal sat in a heap on the side of the home -- its tail rotor sticking out of the roof of a nearby home and a 6-foot chunk landing in the street.
"All of a sudden the house just shook and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, we're having an earthquake,'" nearby resident Marian Michaels told CBS Los Angeles.
A witness who spoke to the station said he saw the chopper "drop like a rock."
The Robinson R44 helicopter was headed to Catalina Island when it went down in Newport Beach soon after taking off from nearby John Wayne Airport, said Joshua Cawthra, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. The airport is about a mile from the crash site.
Audrey Ellis said her neighbors told her they were in the kitchen when the helicopter hit the bedroom of their house. It was unclear if they were injured.
The three people killed in the crash included the pilot and two passengers, Cawthra said. They were identified as 60-year-old Joseph Tena of Newport Beach, 45-year-old Kimberly Watzman of Santa Monica, and 56-year-old Brian Reichelt of Hollywood, Florida. It was unclear who was piloting the aircraft.
David Henry, who lives a couple of houses away from the crash site, said he heard the helicopter coming down and knew what it was because he crashed in three separate choppers when he served in Vietnam. Henry was among those who initially tried to pull victims from the crash but thought better of it.
"They were just jammed in there like sardines," Henry said. "We were pulling back the aluminum and we said, 'We'd have to pull them up out of there' and we could hear the paramedics coming.
"So we said, 'We're not going to touch them,'" he said. "We were afraid of hurting them worse."
Henry said the crash terrified neighborhood residents.
"It scared the hell out of a lot of people here," Henry said. "I was shaking like a dog afterward. It brings back some old memories."
Messages seeking comment from Revolution Aviation, which is based at John Wayne Airport and operated the helicopter, were not immediately returned. The company offers helicopter and airplane classes, the use of aircraft for photography and video production, as well as sightseeing flights.
Cawthra said the helicopter was on a personal flight when it crashed.
Eric Spitzer of Spitzer Helicopter, the owner of the aircraft, said he had leased the R44 to Revolution Aviation since April 2016. He said the helicopter had just gotten updated equipment a week ago, though he didn't have further details.
"Somebody called me and asked about the crash and I was like, 'Oh my God,'" he said. "It was a nice helicopter, very well-maintained."
