A Huntington Beach police helicopter crash-landed in the water in Newport Beach on Saturday evening and a rescue operation was launched, officials said.
We can confirm that our police helicopter, HB1, crash landed in the Newport Beach area. Rescue efforts are underway & more information will be released when available.
— Huntington Beach PD (@HBPoliceDept) February 20, 2022
Orange County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Ryan Anderson said that agency assisted, deploying resources to assist with a rescue. The Newport Beach Fire Department and the Orange County Fire Authority also were on scene.
CBS Los Angeles reported it happened around 6:30 p.m. near the shore and that both pilots were rescued. They were hospitalized, but information on their conditions was not immediately available.
#Breaking: A Huntington Beach Police Department helicopter has crashed into the waters in Newport Beach. Both pilots were reportedly rescued and are being transported to a trauma center for treament. https://t.co/hveistXlhB
— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) February 20, 2022
BREAKING: @NewportBeachFD says they are on scene of a helicopter crash in #NewportBeach. The helicopter is believed to be a police helicopter. They are still working on rescuing a victim that remains trapped. @elianamoreno en route. @NBCLA
— Katherine Picazo (@PicazoKatherine) February 20, 2022
#Breaking helicopter crash in #NewportBeach Search boats in the water #NBCLA pic.twitter.com/oaXbVzDqd7
— AlexVnews (@alexvnews) February 20, 2022
A witness, Joseph Thor, told KTLA what he saw.
“I was barbecuing over on 26th street. You could see a helicopter spiraling, looked like it was losing a little bit of control and it kind of went out of the line of sight but you could see it was going down and apparently crashed in the water over there,” Thor said.
Larry Sato told NBC Los Angeles his party was waiting to be seated for dinner when it happened.
“We were waiting for a table at The Crab Cooker (restaurant) and we saw the helicopter circle around a couple times and they kept getting lower and then suddenly we saw the lights just twirling. It went behind the building and we never saw the impact,” Sato said.
Check back for details on this breaking story.