Stuntman Killed in Copter Crash Died of Burns, Coroner Reports

The stuntman who perished in a helicopter crash near Newhall Friday morning while filming an action sequence for the television series “Airwolf” burned to death, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Saturday.

A coroner’s investigator said that Reid Rondell, 22, of Canoga Park died of “massive thermal injuries” in the fire that engulfed the helicopter three minutes after it crashed on a hillside about 25 miles north of Los Angeles. Film crew members managed to pull pilot Scott Maher to safety before fire consumed the 57-foot craft.

Rondell, a third generation stuntman who worked for Stunts Unlimited, a company his father helped found, had been a double for Jan-Michael Vincent, who stars in “Airwolf” along with Ernest Borgnine. The crash occurred on property owned by the Newhall Land & Farming Co. a few miles from the site of the helicopter accident that killed actor Vic Morrow, 53, and two child actors in 1982 during filming of the movie “Twilight Zone.”

Pilot in Fair Condition Maher, of Los Angeles, was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital for treatment of multiple broken bones, minor head injuries, bruises and cuts. He was listed in fair condition Saturday night. A hospital spokeswoman gave Maher’s age as 46 but an official with the helicopter firm he works for said the pilot is 36.

Federal investigators visited the site near the western end of Pico Canyon Road Friday and Saturday but said they had not determined the cause of the crash, which occurred during a chase scene involving the downed helicopter and a second copter.

Alan Crawford, an official with the National Transportation Safety Board, said he attempted to question Maher in the hospital, but that Maher “has no memory of what happened,” and “doesn’t even remember coming to work.”

‘In the Dark’ Peter J. McKernan Jr., vice president of Jet Copters Inc. of Van Nuys, owner of the helicopter, said late Saturday that he is “just as much in the dark about it (the cause of the accident) now as I was when it happened.” He said the pilot had sustained “a tremendous blow” and that it “was a miracle that he survived.”

A crew from “2 on the Town,” a program that airs on KCBS-TV, was at the scene Friday preparing a segment on “Airwolf” and filmed an unidentified actress asking a director if she could ride along with Maher and Rondell. She was turned down, and the accident occurred moments later.

“Airwolf,” which is co-produced by Universal Studios and Belisarius Productions Inc., depicts Vincent and Borgnine as pilots of a high-tech helicopter used on secret missions by an unnamed government agency.