19/03/2014 09:45
News helicopter in fatal crash
Several times a day, helicopters land and take off from the helipad above Seattle's Fisher Plaza. But this time was different.
According to CNN, the abnormal sound -- what the lead investigator described as an "unusual noise" -- gave away Tuesday morning that something was amiss. What followed immediately afterward proved it, as a news helicopter spiraled not skyward but into the ground, bursting into flames with those flames spreading to several parked cars in its path.
"I looked and the helicopter was almost immediately pitched sideways and off balance," recalled construction worker Bo Bain to CNN affiliate KING. "And he kind of just nose-dove over the trees, and clipped the top of the trees and crashed just on the other side of the street there."
The two people aboard the helicopter died in the crash, and another person who'd been in one of the three vehicles that caught fire was critically burned, officials said.
The scary incident also rattled a vibrant part of the Emerald City, falling a few feet from the iconic Space Needle and not much further from the Experience Music Project, Children's Museum and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation offices about a quarter-mile away.
What happened, and why? Authorities offered little clarity in the immediate aftermath of the crash, expect to promise to someday get an answer.
"We want to understand what actually happened, so we can understand what we can do in the future to prevent this from happening," Mayor Ed Murray said.