# News helicopter crashes near Seattle Center



## CHamilton (Mar 18, 2014)

News helicopter crashes near Seattle Center



> A news helicopter crashed on top of four vehicles outside Seattle Center Tuesday morning and caught fire.
> 
> The crash happened in the 400 block of Broad Street next to Fisher Plaza, which is home to KOMO-TV.
> 
> ...


http://www.komonews.com/news/local/News-helicopter-crashes-burns-beside-Space-Needle-250790281.html


> SEATTLE - Two people were killed when a news helicopter has crashed and burned Tuesday morning on Broad Street only feet from the Space Needle....
> 
> Two cars were struck in the crash. One man could be seen running from from one of the cars with his sleeve on fire, and he was extinguished by officers at the scene.
> 
> ...





> 8:04am via Web
> 
> All streets approaching the Seattle
> 
> Center area are closed. Broad St is closed. Please take alternate routes.


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## Ryan (Mar 18, 2014)

Scary stuff. Helicopters are evil beings that will try to kill at the slightest provication.

OK, that's a little bit overblown, but I've seen too many of them fall out of the sky. At least with an airplane you've got a fighting chance of turning into a glider and setting it down in a somewhat controlled fashion. A helicopter turns into a brick when the SHTF.


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## AmtrakBlue (Mar 18, 2014)




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## SarahZ (Mar 18, 2014)




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## CHamilton (Mar 18, 2014)

Some sources are now reporting that the helicopter crashed as it was taking off, while others are reporting that it crashed while attempting to land.

KING5 says:



> The helicopter was being used in a joint operating agreement between KING 5 News and KOMO. The helicopter is managed by Helicopters Inc, also known as Heli Inc. The company specializes in the design, construction and leasing of news helicopters for television and radio stations nationwide.
> 
> Drivers are being told to avoid the area. The investigation was expected to last several hours.


The crash site is next to Fisher Plaza, where KOMO has its offices and studios.


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## CHamilton (Mar 18, 2014)

This picture, looking south, shows the location of the crash site on Broad Street, between the Space Needle and the Fisher Plaza building.


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## Railroad Bill (Mar 18, 2014)

So sad for the families.


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## CHamilton (Mar 18, 2014)

More pictures.


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## Blackwolf (Mar 18, 2014)

In a helicopter, altitude is your best friend. In that way, helicopters are actually _safer_ than fixed-wing aircraft because (unless you have a failure which stops rotation of the rotor system) the pilot has auto-rotation as a means to keep from truly falling from the sky. Forward momentum also helps tremendously. However, when you're in the "dead-mans curve" of flying low and slow, there is little anyone can do if something goes wrong.

I was in a helicopter crash just a little under two years ago, and fortunately was able to walk away along with the seven others who were aboard. Our ship, CalFire Copter 101 (N499DF), developed a sudden blockage in the fuel control unit as we were coming in for landing at our helipad. Turns out, one of the seals inside had degraded and shed small chunks of material into the fuel stream. As the pilot rolled on the power to slow our decent to the pad, I vividly remember the Master Caution siren suddenly screaming in my helmet, followed by the rotor low-speed RPM horn, and Rick (our pilot) announcing loudly that "We're going down!." We were only about 200 feet above the ground, but Rick did what he is trained to do and successfully auto-rotated us into a field about 150 feet short of the pad. The impact collapsed the running gear, crushed several of the seats inside the fuselage to the floor, broke the transmission mounts for the main rotor system, and broke the tail boom of our UH1H Huey model H.

We were fortunate to have a field to head toward. In this case, it looks like they did not have that luxury and perhaps did not even have the altitude and time to do anything but come down in the middle of a street. Very unfortunate, and terribly sad.


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## CHamilton (Mar 18, 2014)

The consensus now seems to be that the helicopter crashed on takeoff from the helipad on the roof of the Fisher Plaza building, which is several (six or so) stories high.



> Bo Bain, a construction worker, said he saw the helicopter land and stay on the pad for about a minute or two.
> 
> “When he went to take back off, the sound of the helicopter changed kind of drastically and I looked and the helicopter was almost immediately pitched sideways and off balance and he kind of nose-dove over the trees and clipped the top of the trees and crashed on the other side of the street,” said Bain.
> 
> [from KING5]





> Witnesses said the helicopter crashed as it was taking off from the helipad on the roof of Fisher Plaza, across the street from the Space Needle, at about 7:40 a.m.
> 
> "It looked like the helicopter was trying to take off, and it just was trying to stabilize and it looked odd ... and it just took a nose dive right down there on the street," said one eyewitness. "And the scary thing about it was the gas from the helicopter started leaking and it caught a car or two on fire - so it's crazy."
> 
> ...


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## Blackwolf (Mar 18, 2014)

CHamilton said:


> The consensus now seems to be that the helicopter crashed on takeoff from the helipad on the roof of the Fisher Plaza building, which is several (six or so) stories high.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sounds like dynamic rollover to me...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_rollover


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## CHamilton (Mar 18, 2014)

More from KING5:



> A second news helicopter in Seattle was grounded following the crash.
> 
> A tweet from the Twitter account of KIRO 7's news director said, "Chopper7 has been grounded, pending a thorough review of flight safety."
> 
> Drivers are being told to avoid the area. The investigation was expected to last several hours. The Space Needle and SkyCity [restaurant, atop the Needle] will be closed Tuesday.


Also, from Twitter:



> Rider Alert: Seattle Monorail will remain out of service as emergency response completes their work. We will update you when we re-open.


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## CHamilton (Mar 18, 2014)

News chopper crash victims remembered as professional team




> SEATTLE - Former longtime KOMO News photographer Bill Strothman and pilot Gary Pfitzner were identified Tuesday as the two victims killed in the crash of the station's Air 4 news helicopter.
> They were remembered by co-workers as a professional team who worked under difficult conditions to bring the latest news to residents of the Puget Sound region.
> 
> Strothman worked for many years at KOMO News and was well-known to many of the employees, earning 13 Emmy awards during his career.
> ...


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## CHamilton (Mar 18, 2014)

Mayor Murray Addresses Today's Helicopter Crash




> In response to the first headline emergency during his administration, Mayor Ed Murray held a somber press conference this morning, expressing condolences for the victims of today's KOMO helicopter crash— KOMO camera operator Bill Strothman...and helicopter pilot Gary Pfnitzer. He announced what could be a several-days-long closure of the downtown-to-Seattle-Center monorail, the Space Needle, and the Experience Music Project museum....
> 
> In a grisly detail, Murray revealed that the bodies of the two dead crash victims remained on the scene outside Seattle Center.Another man, who has not been identified, was transferred to Harborview with life-threatening injuries. ...
> 
> ...


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## CHamilton (Mar 22, 2014)

NTSB report: KOMO chopper rotated before tipping, crashing






> The National Transportation Safety Board has made a preliminary review of three security-camera recordings showing the moments before the KOMO-TV helicopter crashed near the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Broad Street in Seattle on Tuesday morning.
> 
> The report says the helicopter began rotating counterclockwise during its takeoff sequence, making a full 360-degree revolution as it rose slightly before it pitched forward in a “nose-low attitude.” None of the surveillance videos shows the actual crash, according to the report.
> 
> ...


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