The pilot whose helicopter spun out of control and crashed near a Huntington Beach pedestrian bridge on a busy Saturday afternoon has been described as an aviation influencer famous for his daring maneuvers.
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The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash, and a preliminary report will be released within 30 days, NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said Sunday.
Videos circulating online showed a potential problem with the tail rotor, which appeared to be ejected as the helicopter lost control, and some aviation experts said they suspected that a mechanical issue may have caused the crash.
Eric Nixon was piloting the helicopter when it spiraled toward the ground, his father-in-law, Jerry Miller of Redlands, confirmed in a brief interview on Saturday night.
“He’s in the hospital with some broken ribs, crushed vertebrae and several bruises,” Miller said. Four others, a passenger in the helicopter and three people on the ground, were injured and hospitalized, according to authorities.
“Eric Nixon – a self-styled aviation enthusiast known to thousands online for his heart-stopping stunts – has spent years posting footage of himself performing jaw-dropping maneuvers across the skies of the American West,” the Daily Mail reported late Saturday night.
The crash site where a helicopter slammed into a stairwell of a pedestrian bridge crossing Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach on Saturday. The Hyatt Regency is in the background. (Photo by Steven Georges, Contributing Photographer)
“His Instagram account is filled with adrenaline-pumping clips of low-altitude dashes, tight turns, and desert skims … ” the Mail wrote. “In one recent post, Nixon can be seen hurtling across a desert floor barely 20 feet above ground level with a truck speeding toward him from the opposite direction.”
Some videos a reporter viewed on Sunday included overhead coverage of races at classic car shows and the iconic Huntington Beach July 4th parade. The videos featured Nixon’s helicopters flying low near Orange County beaches and zipping alongside racing trucks on the Baja California Peninsula.
In addition to Nixon and a woman in the helicopter with him, a child and two adults were injured on the ground on Saturday. Officials have not released their names or details about their injuries.
Video shows this helicopter spinning out of control before it crashed in Huntington Beach on Saturday. (Photo by OnScene.TV)
A GoFundMe is seeking donations to help the family of Oliver Holland, a boy who was “enjoying a day at the beach when suddenly a helicopter malfunctioned and came crashing down on him.
“He is currently in the hospital receiving surgery; he has a collapsed lung and brain bleed. We are praying for a safe recovery …” the GoFundMe says.
The crash occurred at 2:09 p.m. on the 21000 block of Pacific Coast Highway in a beach parking lot between Twin Dolphins Drive and Beach Boulevard.
Another view of the wreckage after a helicopter crashed in Huntington Beach on Saturday, Oct. 11. (Photo by Getty Images)
The chopper was a 1980 Bell 222 helicopter that took off from Redlands Municipal Airport, the Aviation Safety Network reported.
“Several videos captured the helicopter went out of control on approach when it experienced a loss of tail-rotor effectiveness … Very soon after, video footage shows a sudden burst on the starboard side while debris could be seen ejected from the airframe and descending to the ground before the helicopter impact,” the report stated.
The videos, many taken by bystanders at the beach, showed the helicopter spinning until it wound up lodged in palm trees near a hotel where the Waterfront Beach Resort and Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa are located.
Mark Robinson, a Pennsylvania resident and a helicopter pilot for nearly 20 years, anticipates that the report from NTSB will come fairly quickly, as there were survivors. He said in a phone interview on Sunday that he’s seen his “fair share” of accidents, and there are a variety of factors that could lead to one.
One of the possible issues could have been loss of tail rotor effectiveness, he said, which could have caused the aircraft to spin out of control.
Robert Katz, a pilot from Texas with more than 40 years of aviation experience, agreed that a tail rotor failure or maintenance issue could have caused the crash.
“We can’t say definitively if maintenance was an issue here,” he said, “but I highly suspect that it was.”
The helicopter veering into some palm trees prevented the crash from being even more severe or even deadly, both experts said.
“As you see, there was no post-crash fire. There could have easily been a post-crash fire if the aircraft had not impacted the trees first,” Robinson said. “While the aircraft was spinning, the rotational effect was basically slowed down and muted by hitting the palm trees.
“And then praise the Lord,” he added, “the steps were even higher than the ground, which means (the) fall was less.”
A “helicopter landing party” preview to Sunday’s Cars ‘N Copters on the Coast event was taking place in the beach parking lots in front of the hotels at the time of the crash.
Car ‘N Copters went on as planned on Sunday.
Staff writer Andrea Klick contributed to this report.