Pasadena Police Helicopters Crash: Preliminary Findings Released

Two weeks after two Pasadena Police Department helicopters crashed at the department’s heliport in Altadena, federal investigators released their preliminary investigation findings late Friday, InsideSocal’s CrimeScene blog reported. 

The crash happened at about 4 p.m. on Nov. 17, around the time a USC-UCLA Rose Bowl game was ending, and resulted in six non-serious injuries, Patch previously reported.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s report is consistent with initial reports that one helicopter had been monitoring the football game while the other was on patrol over Pasadena and the .

According to the preliminary report’s findings, the OH-58 helicopter was returning from its patrol over the Rose Bowl and struck the OH-58A copter that was preparing to take off from between tow helipads, Crimescene Blog reports:

“Once over the main landing pad, the helicopter was observed turning left, and then hover-taxied toward Pad 2,” according to the report. “Once the helicopter reached Pad 2 it turned to the right, and as it settled to the ground, the main rotor blades contacted the main rotor blades of the standing helicopter.”

Police previously told City News Service that each Bell OH-58 chopper contained a pilot and an observer, all of whom were taken to a hospital to be checked out, and that two officers on the ground also suffered minor injuries.

However, authorities told InsideSocal that a pilot and two passengers, including a civilian contractor, were aboard one copter and a pilot and passenger were in the other copter, while just one officer working on the ground was injured.

See more on initial NTSB findings here.

The NTSB stated in a previous release that they won't have factual findings available for the crash until a year from now. A final report takes three years to issue.