Stark Tragedy of Helicopter Crash Ends a Joyous Outing

It was to be like a delayed honeymoon. But it ended in tragedy with the recent bridegroom, Hossein Habibi, 28, of Glendale, killed and 11 others injured in a rare mid-air collision of two commuter helicopters maneuvering to land at the Catalina Air and Sea Terminal in San Pedro.

“They were very much acting like newlyweds,” said Russell Clendenen, 34, of Pitman, N.J., in recounting the last moments of the Saturday afternoon crash at the helipad located under the Vincent Thomas suspension bridge.

Habibi, an Iranian immigrant who worked as a manager at a McDonald’s restaurant, had been sitting in a Bell “LongRanger” helicopter owned by Helitrans of San Pedro, that was about to land after a daylong excursion to Santa Catalina Island. Next to him was his wife of three months, Stacy, 22, whom he had met last year while both were working at Yellowstone National Park.

No Warning

Suddenly, recalled Clendenen, the victim’s longtime friend who was sitting next to the pilot, there was the collision. Clendenen, his left foot bandaged, said there was no warning.

“We were 35 to 40 feet in the air when something hit us,” he said in an interview Sunday. “A big chunk of metal came through the floor and hit my foot. I knew we were going to crash. I knew someone was hurt because I was splattered with blood.”

Habibi apparently was torn out of the helicopter by the collision and killed by the still-spinning rotor blade.

On Sunday evening, two passengers injured in the collision were still hospitalized at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance in stable condition, according to a hospital spokesperson. A third passenger, a 7-month-old girl, also was in stable condition at Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach, a spokesman said.

Cause Undetermined

Officials of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board inspected the wreckage Sunday but declined to speculate on the precise cause of the accident. The second helicopter, also a Bell LongRanger, was owned by Island Express Inc. of Long Beach.

According to Jeff Rich, an NTSB inspector, the pilot of the Helitrans helicopter, Brian Adams, said that “at no time” did he see the other helicopter.

The Helitrans pilot was about to land, at about 4:35 p.m., when he broke off his approach because an Avalon Express sea taxi was about to dock and, the pilot said, he did not want to create water turbulence with his rotors. The helicopter was circling the Los Angeles Fire Department’s harbor station and fire boat dock on Terminal Island and making another landing approach when the collision occurred.

Adams, Rich said, told him that just as he had completed a right-hand turn to land he heard a loud noise, experienced severe vibrations and crash-landed on the helipad. The Island Express helicopter, also inbound from Catalina, crashed into the channel.

Helitrans began its Catalina Island air taxi service in September, 1981, after the halting by the FAA of Catalina Airlines helicopter flights, which had been serving the same route, because of safety and maintenance problems. About 10 weeks later, a Helitrans helicopter made an emergency ocean landing about 11 miles from Avalon on a flight from San Pedro to Santa Catalina. There were no injuries.

On Feb. 22, 1981, a Catalina Airlines helicopter had crashed in the sea near Avalon, killing two people and injuring six others.

Saturday’s accident “was an extremely rare incident,” said Frank L. Jensen Jr., president of the Alexandria-based Helicopter Assn. International, a group that includes most commercial helicopter firms. Jensen said he could not recall a similar civilian incident of its kind although such accidents had happened during military maneuvers.

‘Such Good Visibility’

“Helicopters are such versatile machines, so maneuverable with such good visibility,” he said in observing the rarity of mid-air helicopter collisions.

Oscar Siller, executive chef at the nearby Princess Louise floating restaurant, said the impact of the helicopters sounded like “a strong car crash.”

Siller said a woman, apparently Stacy Habibi, was yelling, “where’s my husband, where’s my husband?”

Daniel Puma, 35, of Woodland Hills, a savings and loan firm official, said he had just arrived at the dock from Catalina, having taken the boat, and saw the crash. His wife Tiare, 24, and his 7-month-old daughter, Ashley, took the Island Express helicopter, however, after a Thanksgiving holiday on the island.

“I remember the feeling of tremendous terror that they were on the helicopter,” he recalled.

Jumps Into Water

Puma said he jumped into the water to rescue his wife while an unidentified man wearing a Chicago Bears football cap rescued his daughter.

Meanwhile, Habibi’s friend Clendenen recalled how Saturday was to be a special honeymoon outing. He said it had been his turn to travel West after Habibi had been his guest at a Thanksgiving dinner in New Jersey three years ago.

“Hossein was like a brother to me,” Clendenen said. “I would do anything for him. . . . He had a heart of gold.”

Times staff writers Ronald L. Soble and Thomas Omestad contributed to this report.