The Huntington Beach Police Department helicopter crashed in the waters of Newport Beach Harbor on Feb.19, claiming the life of Officer Nicholas Vella, a 14-year veteran of the department.
The pilot continued to apply corrective control inputs, but the helicopter did not respond, and began to progress into a spinning descent, the NTSB investigation found.
Vella transmitted over the police radio channel, "We’re having some mechanical issues right now", followed by, "we’re going down, we’re going down". The pilot stated the rotation became more aggressive as the helicopter began to descend. He continued with corrective control inputs, which appeared to be partially effective but did not stop the rotation, the NTSB said. He stated that the engine was operating throughout, and his goal was to continue to fly the helicopter with the engine still running, rather than reducing power and performing an autorotation to a populated area.
"Because it was dark, he had no horizon or accurate external reference, but he could see the lights of houses approaching, and sensed impact was imminent, so he pulled the collective control in an effort to bleed off airspeed," the NTSB report reads. The pilot recalled a sudden smash and saw water and glass coming toward him as the canopy shattered. He felt the rotor blades hitting the water, everything then stopped, and within a few seconds he was submerged.
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