A helicopter crash in Seattle just blocks from the city’s iconic Space Needle has killed two people, local authorities say.
The helicopter belonged to local news outlet KOMO-TV, which said the helicopter was lifting off from its rooftop Tuesday morning when it possibly hit the side of the building and fell to the ground, hitting several vehicles on the street below.
The two people killed were both inside the chopper.
Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Kyle Moore said a 37-year-old man managed to free himself from a car at the accident scene, and was taken to Harborview Medical Center where he is in critical condition.
One witness said he saw the helicopter lift about five feet and looked like it was about to clear the building when it tilted. He said it looked as if the helicopter was trying to correct itself before it took a nose dive.
“Next thing I know, it went into a ball of flames," Kristopher Reynolds, a contractor working nearby, told The Associated Press.
When emergency crews arrived, they found the helicopter, two cars and a pickup truck on fire.
Huge flames and smoke could be seen coming from the wreckage on Broad Street, a short walk from the Space Needle, the Seattle Centre Pavilion and other tourist destinations.
"Not only were the cars on fire, the fuel running down the street was on fire," Moore, the fire department spokesperson, told reporters at the scene.
Firefighters apparently stopped the burning fuel from entering sewers.
KIRO 7, another Seattle television station, expressed its condolences to the families of the two victims in a statement on Tuesday, and said it was temporarily grounding its own helicopter.
“We have no reason to believe that there’s anything wrong with our chopper, but we are taking this action out of an abundance of caution,” the statement said.
The crash will be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.
With files from The Associated Press
