PNP chief Gamboa, 7 others survive helicopter crash

Rescue teams check the wreckage of the Bell 429 chopper carrying Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Archie Gamboa after a crash in Laguna on Thursday morning. Gamboa and 7 others, including Major Generals Jovic Ramos, Mariel Magaway, his comptroller ship and intelligence heads and Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, the PNP spokesman, were brought to nearby hospitals after sustaining minor injuries during the incident. 

The team just came from an inspection of impounded vehicles in San Pedro, Laguna and were on their way to Camp Vicente Lim in Calamba, according to PNP PIO. 

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Vanessa Bryant announces 'celebration of life' for Kobe and Gianna

LOS ANGELES, United States - Vanessa Bryant announced plans for a public celebration of life for her late husband Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna in a touching Instagram post on Friday.

"#2, #24 #20 years as a Laker," the bereaved wife and mother wrote in the post, confirming that a memorial service would be held at Staples Center arena at 10:00 am (1800 GMT) this Monday.

Gianna Bryant wore No. 2 for her school basketball team and Kobe Bryant wore No. 24 in the later stages of his iconic 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kobe Bryant, 41, and 13-year-old Gianna were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash in the rugged hills west of Los Angeles on January 26.

The event will fall on a day between two Lakers home games, but the rival Los Angeles Clippers will host the Memphis Grizzlies in an NBA game at the arena in downtown Los Angeles that night.

Lee Zeidman, president of Staples Center, told the Los Angeles Times that getting the court ready for the game won't be a problem.

"Staples Center has hosted over 220 doubleheaders in its 20-year history," Zeidman said. "While this is going to be a very emotional day for the Bryant family, the Los Angeles Lakers, the city of Los Angeles, as well as for the men and women who work at Staples Center, we are very confident we will be ready for 6 p.m. doors opening for the Clippers-Memphis game following the ceremony."

Staples Center, also the home of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and venue for concerts and events such as the recent Grammy Awards, has hosted memorials for recording artists Michael Jackson and Nipsey Hussle.

The Lakers themselves paid emotional tribute to Bryant there in their first game after the club legend's death, when they hosted the Portland Trail Blazers.

Gianna's teammates Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester, Alyssa's parents John and Keri Altobelli, Payton's mother Sarah Chester, basketball coach Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan also died in the crash, which remains under investigation.

A memorial service was scheduled for Monday at Angel Stadium in Anaheim for the Altobelli family. John Altobelli, 56, was a longtime coach of the Orange Coast College baseball team.

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Weather conditions scrutinized as Kobe Bryant's fatal helicopter crash opens

CALABASAS, California - Overcast skies and fog reported at the scene of the helicopter wreck that killed Los Angeles basketball great Kobe Bryant, his daughter and 7 others figured prominently on Monday in the first full day of federal aviation experts' crash investigation.

An 18-member National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) team, assisted by FBI forensic specialists, began mapping the wreckage site with drones and examining debris scattered across the hillside where the helicopter went down on Sunday.

Los Angeles County coroner's investigators, working alongside aviation NTSB inspectors, said they had recovered the first three bodies from the crash site and were searching for more remains.

In a sign that clouds, fog and limited visibility were of particular interest to investigators, NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy appealed to the public to come forward with any photographs that might help document local weather conditions at the time of the crash.

Homendy told reporters that weather was just one factor.

'DEVASTATING ACCIDENT SCENE'

"We take a broad look at everything in an investigation - man, machine and the environment. And weather is just a small portion of that," she said at a late-afternoon news conference in Calabasas, California, about mile from the crash site.

She described how bits of the aircraft - a section of the fuselage, a piece of the tail, a rotor and other debris - were strewn around an impact crater where the helicopter slammed into a tall grassy slope.

"It was a pretty devastating accident scene," she said.

The twin-engine Sikorsky S-76B took off from John Wayne Airport in the Orange County city of Santa Ana on a flight destined for a regional airport about 80 miles to the northwest in the coastal town of Camarillo, the NTSB said. It crashed in the Santa Monica foothills on the outskirts of Calabasas, about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

The pilot and all 8 passengers, including Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, perished in the fiery wreck. They were on their way to a girl's basketball tournament at a sports academy where Bryant was to have coached his daughter's team that day.



Bryant, an 18-time National Basketball Association all-star five NBA championships during his 20 years with the Los Angeles Lakers, was known since his playing days to travel frequently by helicopter to avoid the Los Angeles area's infamous traffic.

But questions immediately surfaced about the role that weather conditions played in Sunday's tragedy.

Forecasters reported low clouds and limited visibility at the time of the crash, and eyewitnesses recounted thick fog over the foothills where the helicopter went down.

'LOWER AND LOWER' 


Fog and clouds were so bad that both the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department grounded their helicopter fleets, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing officials.

Public recordings of radio calls between Bryant's helicopter and air traffic control during the flight indicate the pilot tried to remain below clouds so he could see the ground and avoid having to fly on instruments, said Gary C. Robb, an aviation lawyer and author of the book "Helicopter Crash Litigation."

"The dialogue between the pilot and air traffic control leads me to believe ... he kept wanting to go lower and lower, beneath the fog and ceiling, as we call it, and that could have led him to fly so low that he flew into the mountain," Robb told Reuters.

The pilot, in his transmissions, "was calm and controlled the whole time," Robb added, calling the communications "extremely normal and routine."

A possible mechanical failure cannot be ruled out, especially in light of "ear-witness" accounts that the helicopter sounded like it was "sputtering" moments before the crash, Robb said.

He described the Sikorsky S-76, however, as a "reliable" and "generally safe" aircraft.

Both Robb and another prominent aviation disaster attorney, Bob Clifford, both noted that the pilot had requested "flight following," or constant tracking from controllers to help keep the Sikorsky clear of other aircraft in limited visibility, but was informed he was flying too low to be picked up by air traffic radar. It is unclear whether the pilot heard that admonition as it came near the end of the doomed flight.

NTSB's Homendy said the pilot was an experienced, commercially licensed aviator and certified flight instructor with at last 8,200 hours of flight time.

LAKERS GAME CANCELED

The crash devastated 3 other families linked to the Mamba Sports Academy in Calabasas - a husband and wife with their 13-year-old daughter; a mother and her 13-year-old daughter; and a basketball coach who was also a mother. 


In honor of Bryant, the NBA announced it had canceled a game scheduled for Tuesday between the Lakers and their cross-town rivals, the Clippers.

After Lakers fans spontaneously built a shrine to Bryant near the Staples Center, his teams' home arena, fans also left flowers and Bryant jerseys at Lower Merion High School outside Philadelphia, where Bryant played before joining the NBA.

In Hollywood, movie celebrities, including Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt, took part in a moment of silence to honor Bryant at the start of the annual Academy Award nominees luncheon. Bryant, an Oscar-winner for the animated short film he wrote and produced, "Dear Basketball," attended the lunch two years ago.

In New York, morning commuters emerging from Penn Station stopped for a silent moment before an enormous electronic billboard lit up with Bryant's image outside Madison Square Garden. 

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Ex-basketball star Kobe Bryant, four others dead in helicopter crash

Retired basketball star Kobe Bryant and four other people died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, on Sunday morning, the city of Calabasas reported.

“It is with great sadness that we learn of the death of Kobe Bryant and four others in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. The aircraft went down in a remote field off Las Virgenes around 10:00 this morning. Nobody on the ground was hurt,” the city of Calabas said on Twitter.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff said on Twitter that five people died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, about 40 miles (65 km) northwest of Los Angeles, and that there were no survivors. It did not identify the victims.

First responders put out the flames of the crash site, the sheriff’s department said, posting a picture of a fire truck and smoke emerging from the brush in a ravine.

Bryant, 41, was known to use a helicopter for travel dating to his days as a star player for the Los Angeles Lakers, when he commuted to games in a Sikorsky S-76 chopper, the celebrity news website TMZ said.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration identified the crashed helicopter as a Sikorsky S-76, saying in a statement that the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.

Bryant won five NBA championship rings with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was an 18-times NBA All-Star who wore the No. 24 during his 20-year career with the team.

Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, have four daughters: Gianna, Natalia, Bianca and Capri, who was born in June 2019.

Reporting by Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru, Daniel Trotta and Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

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3 dead in Black Hawk helicopter crash in Minnesota

A Black Hawk helicopter went down in central Minnesota on Thursday, killing all three soldiers on board, after it lost contact with the Minnesota National Guard during a maintenance test flight, Governor Tim Walz said on Thursday.

Emergency crews gathered at the scene. The names of the crew were not released, but Walz told a news briefing an investigation would be launched into the reasons for the crash.

"At approximately 1400 hours today a Minnesota Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter went down approximately 16 miles south west of St. Cloud," Walz said, referring to a city in the state's central region.

"The crash resulted in the death of all three crew."


On Twitter, the Minnesota National Guard earlier said it had lost communication with the craft at about 2 p.m. 

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One dead as helicopter crash-lands on Manhattan building

NEW YORK -- A helicopter crash-landed on top of a high-rise in midtown Manhattan Monday, starting a fire and leaving one person dead as the entire building shook from the impact.

Emergency services fanned out around the 54-story building on Seventh Avenue after what was described as a "hard-landing" by a chopper that took off barely 10 minutes earlier from a heliport in the city.

The New York fire department confirmed 1 fatality -- presumed to be the pilot according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Speaking at the scene, de Blasio said it "could have been a much worse incident."

"There were no other injuries that we know of at this point in time to anyone in the building or on the ground," he said: adding: "Thank god for that."

The pilot was the only person on board the chopper according to US aviation regulators.

"There is no indication at this time that this was an act of terror," said de Blasio. "And there is no ongoing threat to New York city based on all the information we have right now."

Video footage of the aftermath of the crash showed a gray plume of smoke drifting away from the top of the building.

The city fire department said it had extinguished a fire on the building's roof, and was continuing to operate in response to fuel leaking from the helicopter. 

Nathan Hutton, who works in the building on the 29th floor, said he had "felt the whole building shift." 

"We thought it was an earthquake or something like that," he told AFP. "Something small like that. Then two minutes after, the alarms went off and then security came in: 'Everybody just grab your bag and walk out the door now!'" 

He said there was no panic, but going down the stairs "was scary because everybody from all the floors" was descending "all at the same time" -- a process that took half an hour.

"There was no shouting but a little nervousness, with the occasional, 'C'mon, move!" he added. 

TRUMP BRIEFED 

The Federal Aviation Administration tweeted identified the chopper as an Agusta A109E and said the crash occurred about 1:45 pm (1745 GMT).

President Donald Trump said he had been kept informed of the situation.

"I have been briefed on the helicopter crash in New York City. Phenomenal job by our GREAT First Responders who are currently on the scene. THANK YOU for all you do 24/7/365! The Trump Administration stands ready should you need anything at all," Trump tweeted.

The city fire department urged people to avoid the area.

Five people died after a helicopter plunged into Manhattan's east river near the upscale Upper East Side neighborhood in March 2018.

The chopper, which was owned by tourism group Liberty, was carrying six people including the pilot, who managed to free himself. The other five did not.

That crash led US aviation authorities to review regulations for so-called "doors off" flights, which provide passengers with a more direct view of the skyline than flights with the aircraft's doors shut.

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Chopper crashes into US townhouse, 1 dead: reports

WASHINGTON - A helicopter crashed into a townhouse complex in the US state of Virginia on Sunday, leaving one person dead and the building ripped apart and damaged by fire, local media said.

The incident occurred in Williamsburg, in the state's southeast and not far from Norfolk, which is home to a naval station which supports the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet.

The Daily Press newspaper quoted Virginia State Police as saying there was "one confirmed fatality within the residential structure."

AFP could not immediately reach the police for comment.

WAVY-TV showed pictures of the low-rise residential complex, with much of its roof sheared off, exposing a gaping hole in the structure.

The station quoted a witness as saying he heard a "big explosion," while others reported a helicopter flying low before the incident.

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At least 2 dead after helicopter crashes in New York City's East River

NEW YORK - A helicopter carrying 6 people crashed in New York City's East River on Sunday, killing at least 2, and emergency divers were in the water around the partially submerged aircraft, according to officials.

Eric Phillips, a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, said in a post on Twitter there was "at least 1 survivor, at least 2 fatalities. Divers are still in the water."

New York Police said 3 people were hospitalized.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the Eurocopter AS350 went down near the northern end of Roosevelt Island at about 7 p.m. and was reported to be upside-down in the water. The agency said it was investigating. The National Transportation Safety Board said its investigative team would arrive on Monday.

A Reuters photographer witnessed three people recovered by rescue divers being wheeled on stretchers onto a midtown pier shortly before 9 p.m. Emergency personnel attempted to resuscitate them, but their condition was not clear. Officials would not provide further details.

The US Coast Guard said six people were on the helicopter. The Coast Guard launched three boats to aid in the response, joining New York City emergency responders.

The Coast Guard said, "Five people have been recovered by New York City Police Department and the New York City Fire Department divers and their conditions are currently unknown."

"It kind of hit sideways and just flipped over," Brianna Jesme, 22, an Upper East Side resident who witnessed the crash, told Reuters TV.

A federal official said the aircraft appeared to be a sight-seeing helicopter.

Video of the incident filmed by an onlooker and posted on Twitter showed a red helicopter descending toward the water at dusk, then landing with a large splash before tipping onto its right side, its tail lights still flashing.

Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the footage.

The New York City Fire Department tweeted that its members were with police at the location near 91st Street in Manhattan.

New York police and fire officials planned to brief reporters later on Sunday.

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3 tourists dead in US Grand Canyon chopper crash

WASHINGTON - At least 3 people were killed and 4 others injured Saturday when a helicopter carrying tourists in Arizona went down in the Grand Canyon, authorities said.

The accident took place at around 5:20 pm in Grand Canyon West, located in northwestern Arizona, said Hualapai Nation police chief Francis Bradley.

Local media reported the Eurocopter EC130 helicopter, whose operator was unknown, was traveling on a tour.

"The investigation is ongoing," Bradley told AFP, noting that there was no information immediately available on the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.

Allen Kenitzer, of the Federal Aviation Authority's Office of Communications, told AFP the aircraft sustained "substantial damage."

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, he added.

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Greek navy helicopter crashes in Aegean, 3 feared dead

ATHENS - Three Greek naval airmen were missing and feared dead after a Greek navy helicopter crashed early on Thursday off the small island of Kinaros in the eastern Aegean Sea, Greece's Defence Ministry said.

"The Agusta Bell helicopter was taking part in the night military exercise 'hunder'. It had taken off from a frigate sailing in the area and disappeared from radar around 0045 GMT. Wreckage has been found near Kinaros," a ministry official said.

Kinaros is an islet near the island of Amorgos.

Armed forces chief Vangelis Apostolakis said weather conditions had been normal at the time when radar contact and communications were lost.

He said only parts of the wreckage had been found, and that there was little hope that any of the crew would be found alive.

Turkey issued a Notice to Airmen saying the Greek rescue operation was within its maritime search and rescue region and that all efforts should be coordinated with Turkish authorities.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

U.S. military helicopter crashes in South Korea, two dead

SEOUL - A U.S. Apache helicopter crashed in central South Korea on Monday, killing its pilot and another crew member, police and military officials said.

The attack helicopter went down in the county of Wonju in Gangwon province, the officials said.

About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea in joint defense with the South's forces against North Korea. The two Koreas are in a technical state of war under a truce after their 1950-53 Korean War.

On Monday, South Korea's military conducted artillery live-fire drills on islands near a disputed maritime border with North Korea, ignoring Pyongyang's threat to fire back if any of the shells landed in its waters.

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Seven dead as New Zealand helicopter crashes into glacier

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Six tourists and their pilot were killed when their helicopter crashed into a heavily crevassed glacier in New Zealand during bad weather on Saturday, police said.

The sightseeing helicopter plunged into the Fox Glacier, a popular tourist site on the West Coast of the south Island, with weather conditions reported to be heavily overcast and raining at the time.

A paramedic and an alpine rescue team who were winched down to the crash site confirmed there were no survivors, a police spokesman said.

Efforts were under way to recover the bodies but police said this could take time because of the atrocious weather.

"I'm not going to risk any more lives, we've lost seven," inspector John Canning told reporters.

The names and nationalities of the pilot and six passengers were not immediately available.

The downed helicopter was reported to belong to Alpine Adventures, a company that advertises itself as an "experienced helicopter flight-seeing company providing visitors with a diverse range of South Island scenic helicopter flights and private charters in some of most spectacular alpine and coastal regions of New Zealand".

Five years ago, nine people including four tourists were killed when a plane carrying a party of skydivers crashed on take off at Fox Glacier airport.

Fox Glacier is 13 kilometres (eight miles) long and is listed as one of the most accessible glaciers in the world, attracting thousands of tourists each year.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Seattle helicopter crash adds to concern about chopper safety

Troubled by an "unacceptably high number of helicopter accidents" during the last decade, the National Transportation Safety Board in recent weeks has asked the helicopter industry to take extra care when inspecting and fixing helicopters. Officials have also suggested that pilots spend more time training on simulators.

The deaths of a pilot and a photojournalist in a fiery helicopter crash in downtown Seattle on Tuesday are likely to bring more urgency to that safety campaign. Already, Seattle's mayor has said he wants to reexamine the city’s regulations about helipads.

The KOMO-TV news chopper had just taken off from its helipad atop a downtown building when witnesses described hearing unusual noises, including the sound of a "whining" engine, the NTSB said. The aircraft starting spinning and sputtered into the ground, where it exploded and damaged three cars. One of the drivers was hospitalized for serious burn injuries.

More than 500 people have died in at least 1,600 helicopter crashes since 2004, the NTSB said in January. The agency attributed part of what it described as an alarming upward trend to the growing demand for helicopters to serve as ambulances, help with searches, cover news events and serve in private tours.

Helicopter crashes have been a cause for concern worldwide. In just the last week, four men died in a crash in England and a radio journalist died in El Salvador while covering a bike race from a helicopter that smashed into the ground shortly after takeoff.

The 11-year-old Eurocopter AS350 B2 that went down in Seattle was owned by Helicopters Inc., which says on its website that it operates choppers for more than 50 news organizations. KOMO-TV and KING-TV had been jointly leasing a helicopter from the company. But the one that crashed was a temporary replacement while the usual one received upgrades,  KOMO-TV said.

A Boston television station, WBZ-TV, reported that it and another local station, WFXT-TV, had been using the same helicopter for a decade before switching it out last fall.

Investigators trying to determine what caused the fiery crash will examine the pilot's background and the remains of the aircraft. They will also consider environmental factors such as the weather, said Dennis Hogenson, the NTSB's acting deputy for the Western Pacific region.

The agency's weeks-old safety campaign has spurred action from helicopter manufacturers and helicopter operators. At a helicopter trade conference last month, industry leaders said pilots should make precautionary landings and ground their helicopters if they feel something is amiss. Pilots shouldn't worry about ridicule from colleagues or punishment from the FAA, they said.

"If we are so good at landing anywhere, how come we don't use that feature when we need it the most -- to prevent an accident?" Matt Zuccaro, president of Helicopter Assn. International reportedly said of the "Land and Live" message. "If the weather is closing in, if you are unsure of your ability to reach your fueling point, if there is a maintenance sound or an indication on the panel or if the pilot is not feeling well physically, why not just stop that sequence of events?"

In Seattle, Mayor Ed Murray said a review of helipad regulations was necessary because the crash could have been "much worse." The crash site was across from popular tourist attractions, including the Space Needle, a monorail and a music museum. But the area was quiet about 7:40 a.m. when the crash occurred, he said at a televised news conference.

Emmy Award-winning photojournalist Bill Strothman and the helicopter pilot, Gary Pfitzner, died. Richard Newman, 38, escaped from one of three cars damaged by the crash and was hospitalized in serious condition with burns on up to 20% of his body.

The wreckage was taken to a hangar at Auburn Municipal Airport about 30 miles away. A preliminary report on the crash should be available within five days, the NTSB said, though investigators may not have determined a cause by then.

source: latimes.com

13 dead in Indonesian army helicopter crash: military

JAKARTA - Thirteen people were killed Saturday when an Indonesian army helicopter carrying construction workers crashed in the jungles of Borneo as it came in to land, an official said.

"Thirteen people died in the crash while the rest suffered burn injuries," military spokesman Iskandar Sitompul told AFP.

There were 21 people on board, he said.

Earlier reports said nine people had been injured in the crash, in the Malinau district of North Kalimantan province in the Indonesian part of Borneo island.

Sitompul said earlier that the aircraft had burst into flames when it crashed.

The Russian-made, Mi-17 aircraft was carrying eight crew, who were military personnel, 13 civilian construction workers and materials weighing 500 kilos (1,100 pounds).

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