Injured TV Copter Pilot Leaves Hospital; 3 Rescuers Honored

VAN NUYS —  The pilot of a helicopter that crashed at Van Nuys Airport following coverage of the Academy Awards was released Tuesday from Northridge Hospital Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Kris Kelley, 33, of Thousand Oaks suffered arm, head and leg injuries in the March 26 crash in which a rival TV helicopter team rescued her and her passenger, cameraman Phil Arno, 50, of Chatsworth.

Arno is in good condition but is expected to remain hospitalized and under observation until next week. He will undergo rehabilitation of a shattered ankle, hospital spokeswoman Angela Giacobbe said.

As Kelley prepared to leave the hospital Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council and county Board of Supervisors honored three men who helped rescue the pair from the wreckage and fire after the crash.

“These are real true-life heroes,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, who handed out resolutions to KCBS-TV Channel 2 cameraman Aaron Fitzgerald, KCAL-TV Channel 9 helicopter pilot Larry Welk and Van Nuys Airport Police Officer Carl Sansbury.

Fitzgerald and Welk, who were working for “Entertainment Tonight,” accompanied the disabled helicopter back to Van Nuys, landed immediately after the crash and, with the help of Sansbury, pulled the two people out of the wreckage as fuel burned on the ground around them.

A preliminary report on the helicopter crash, released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board, found that a video camera aboard the disabled copter recorded the drama of the event.

A five-second horn blast could be heard on the videotape, sounding just as the aircraft lost total hydraulic pressure while hovering over the Academy Awards ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, according to the NTSB report.

Kelley elected to return to her base at Van Nuys, 15 miles northwest of the auditorium, even though Santa Monica Airport was only five miles away, the report noted.

The on-board camera, pointed toward the rear of the craft, recorded the helicopter coming within 20 feet of landing when it suddenly spiraled out of control and slammed into the asphalt, wrote George Petterson, NTSB chief air safety investigator. The crash occurred just outside a hangar owned by Helinet Aviation Services, which had leased the helicopter to KTTV-TV Channel 11.

“The helicopter started a left climbing turn toward the hangar, continuing into one or more 360-degree turns,” Petterson reported. The main rotor blades hit the asphalt first, flipping the copter 21 feet and onto its left side and nose, rupturing the fuel system. A fire erupted from the fuel that spilled away from the fuselage into a low area of the ramp, the report found.

Van Nuys Airport and NTSB officials said that Kelley did not declare an emergency, and that no emergency vehicles or crews were notified that the disabled helicopter was coming in for an emergency landing.

Helinet, which was formerly operated as West Coast Helicopters, has had two fatal accidents and two non-injury accidents since 1993, according to the NTSB. Three people died, including one of the owners, and two others were injured in the crashes.

Alan Purwin, Helinet president and registered owner of the Aerospatiale ship destroyed in the March 26 crash, was injured in a 1996 accident that killed his partner, Michael Tamburro. Purwin was at the controls during the filming of a scene in the Antelope Valley when the rotor blades of his helicopter struck a rock outcropping and crashed. A member of a production crew also was injured by flying debris in that incident.

A Helinet pilot and crew member also died in a 1993 accident in Hayward. The pair apparently became disoriented while flying through rainy weather at night over a bay and crashed into the water, according to an NTSB investigation.

Contributing to this report was Times research librarian Ron Weaver.