Copter Crash Witness Pulled Wife From Water

Daniel Puma remembers someone asking, “Why is that helicopter so close?” before he heard the violent collision of two helicopters, including one that carried his wife and 7-month-old daughter.

Puma, 35, a savings and loan official from Woodland Hills, was about to disembark Saturday from a boat that brought him to San Pedro from Catalina Island, where he and his family had spent the Thanksgiving holiday with his parents. His wife had opted for a helicopter to avoid seasickness, he said Sunday.

As the helicopters--which were trying to land at the Catalina Air and Sea Terminal at the same time that his boat arrived--collided, Puma realized that one of the aircraft was carrying his wife, Tiare, 24, and daughter Ashley.

Puma said one helicopter struck the ground on its side, parts flew, and the rotors chopped into the ground at least 10 times, bouncing the helicopter five to six feet into the air with each impact.

“It looked like a wounded bird beating itself,” he said.

He ran to that helicopter, pulling a bloodied girl from the wreckage as he searched for his family. But they were on the other craft, which dropped into the ocean about 30 yards from the dock.

His wife was clinging to a pontoon of the upended aircraft, holding a life vest. Puma jumped in and swam to her, asking, “Where’s Ashley? Where’s Ashley?”

He pulled her to the dock, where he found that an unidentified man wearing a Chicago Bears cap had rescued their daughter. Puma said he carried his family to a nearby police car, which took them to San Pedro Peninsula Hospital.

He said his wife and daughter had been under water for about two minutes and swallowed water mixed with fuel.

Puma said he learned later that his wife, with Ashley on her lap, was sitting directly behind Hossein Habibie, a Glendale resident who died when he was struck by a helicopter rotor.

Tiare Puma was released from the hospital Sunday, and Ashley’s condition was upgraded from critical to serious at Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach.