A child had to be pulled from beneath the wreck of a crashed helicopter during a fundraising event, dramatic new footage reveals. Five people were hospitalized at Huntington Beach in California, after a Bell 222 crumpled onto a flight of stairs. Footage obtained by KTLA5 shows the chopper break into a violent spin after its tail rotor appears to stop spinning and then fall off. The helicopter had been part of the Cars ‘N Copters fundraising event. Footage shows it descending rapidly before getting wedged between a tree and steps up to a pedestrian bridge across from a Hyatt hotel. There are shouts as two people sprint down to the wreckage and try to pull something from below the twisted aircraft. “You can see bystanders trying to free what appears to be a young boy from underneath the wreckage,” KTLA5’s broadcast stated. A Huntington Beach police spokesperson said two people had been on the helicopter, and both had made it out alive. Three people on the street were injured. Eric Nixon is understood to have been flying the helicopter, with his father-in-law, Jerry Miller, telling the Orange County Register, “He’s in the hospital with some broken ribs, crushed vertebrae and several bruises.” The FAA and NTSB have been notified, and the investigation remains ongoing, city officials said in a statement.
