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Emergency units are responding.
A helicopter crashed into a Newport Beach home about a mile from John Wayne Airport at 2:10pm Tuesday. The Robinson-44 chopper had four people aboard as it crashed into the 40 block of Egret Court. Early information is that there are three fatalities.
This post will be updated with details as we receive more information as we receive it.
UPDATE: Newport Beach PD has released this statement about the incident:
At 1:50 p.m., the Newport Beach Police Department was notified of a helicopter crash in a residential neighborhood. Police and Fire personnel responding to the scene found that the helicopter had come to rest at the front of a home on Shearwater Place near the intersection with Egret Court. There were a total of five people involved in the collision: four adults in the helicopter and an adult bystander.
Of these five individuals, we are saddened to confirm that three of them succumbed to their injuries and died at the scene. The other two people involved in the collision were injured; one was transported to a local hospital and the other was transported to a local trauma center for medical aid.
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Authority will investigate the details of the crash. Media inquiries on that investigation can be directed to Keith Holloway of the NTSB at 202-314-6100 or keith.holloway@ntsb.gov.
Although we anticipate that the NTSB’s investigatory work at the crash scene will take several days to complete, residents of the neighborhood are able to access their homes. At least two structures were impacted by the crash, but no one inside the homes was injured as a result. Volunteers from TIP (Trauma Intervention Program) were on-hand to assist anyone impacted by the incident.
We would like to thank our partners at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Coroner Division, the Irvine Police Department, John Wayne Airport, and TIP, as well as city staff from Municipal Operations and Code Enforcement who assisted at the scene and the over 40 firefighters who responded from the Newport Beach Fire Department, Costa Mesa Fire Department, and Orange County Fire Authority.
