A memorial service for Huntington Beach Police Officer Nicholas Vella, killed in a helicopter crash on Feb. 19, is planned for Tuesday, March 8, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, and the city has set up a live stream for the public to view, authorities said.

The service, scheduled for 10 a.m., is not open to the public. The video of the service can be viewed on the City of Huntington Beach’s YouTube page, police said.

The police department also invites community members to pay their respects as a procession travels along city streets before the memorial service, starting at 7 a.m., said Huntington Beach Police spokeswoman Jennifer Carey.

Plans call for the procession to travel south on Goldenwest Street between Yorktown Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway, then southeast on Pacific Coast Highway, north on Magnolia Avenue and east on Talbert Street to Brookhurst Street, police said.

Vella, an 18-year law enforcement veteran, died in a helicopter crash just off the shoreline in Newport Beach on the evening of Feb. 19. His partner, who was piloting the helicopter, survived the crash.

The pair were responding to a priority call of a disturbance in Newport Beach when the helicopter went down, police said. The Huntington Beach Police Department’s Air Support Unit serves Newport Beach and Costa Mesa under contracts with those cities.

The officers were pulled from the helicopter by civilians and emergency responders.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Elliott Simpson told reporters the day after the crash that a preliminary investigation showed the pilot made a call indicating they were having mechanical problems and then another saying that the helicopter was going down. NTSB was investigating the cause of the crash, which could take more than a year to complete.

Vella spent 14 years with the Huntington Beach Police Department and his first four years with the Laguna Beach Police Department, police said. He was remembered as a selfless and driven man and leaves behind his wife and a teenage daughter.

He enjoyed volunteering at local fundraisers benefitting law enforcement-related causes, said Michelle Schuetz, a longtime friend who organized some of the events.

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