Offshoreonly.com - Helicopter crash at LOTO

Investigators probe SoCal chopper crash
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 05/25/2008 11:03:00 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES—Investigators on Sunday were sorting through the wreckage of a helicopter crash on Santa Catalina Island as medical examiners attempted to identify the badly burned bodies of two of the three people killed, authorities said. The Saturday morning crash over the west end of the Island about 20 miles off the coast of Los Angeles County killed one man and two women immediately, County Supervising Fire Dispatcher Melanie Flores said.
A male employee of the helicopter company and a female passenger were burned and would require dental records to be identified, said county coroner's spokesman John Kades.
The male pilot, who was also killed had been identified but authorities had been unable to locate relatives and his name was not released, Kades said.
Two women and one man were taken by helicopter to mainland hospitals, authorities said. Two of the injured were in critical condition with broken bones and other injuries.
One injured woman was taken to County-USC Medical Center, but she declined to release information about her condition, a supervising nurse at the hospital said Sunday. A spokeswoman at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center said she couldn't provide information on the conditions of the other two victims.
It was not immediately known why the chopper went down, though authorities said it was related to engine failure rather than the sometimes stormy weather that the area had seen heading into the weekend. Transportation and Safety Board investigators were flown to the island to investigate.
"We want to just document the scene, talk to witnesses, and move the wreckage back to L.A. and get it in an area where we can work," NTSB investigator Dennis Hogenson told KTLA-TV.
Witnesses saw the helicopter shoot a ball of flame from its exhaust pipe while it was over water, county sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.
Former flight attendant Debora Hansen, who was taking a walk by a yacht club, saw the helicopter go down and helped with the rescue of survivors.
She said it went down in a huge explosion and some of the passengers were thrown from the aircraft. Hansen said she and another man began pulling the survivors away from the flames. One woman was able to crawl to safety but a male survivor couldn't move.
"He said, 'I've got broken legs,' and I said, 'I'm going to pull you anyway or you're going to burn up in the flames,'" Hansen said Saturday.
The Eurocopter AS 350 chopper was a private tour aircraft from Island Express, officials said. The company continued to take reservations Sunday, but a woman who answered the phone Sunday said Island Express had no comment on the crash and hung up.
Federal Aviation Administration records show the helicopter crashed less than an hour after picking up the passengers on the island.