Pilot Injured as Crop-Dusting Copter Crashes

The pilot of a crop-dusting helicopter was injured when his aircraft crashed Sunday morning near Val Verde in what authorities said was his second helicopter accident in five months.

James Davidson, 40, was spraying an onion field about 8:30 a.m. south of California 126 when his helicopter crashed into dense brush near the Santa Clara River below the field, authorities said.

Jeff Humphreys, a Los Angeles County agricultural inspector who was supervising the spraying, said he found Davidson after the pilot had crawled about half a mile through the brush.

Humphreys drove Davidson to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, where he was in fair condition with what Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said may be a broken back.

The tail of the helicopter, owned by Aerohead Helicopters in Rialto, broke and tanks estimated to contain about 100 gallons of the insecticide diazinon ruptured in the crash, deputies said.

A sheriff’s hazardous materials team and inspectors from the county Department of Health Services responded, but determined there was no health hazard. Officials from the state Department of Fish and Game said they would supervise the clean-up operation, which will involve removing soil from the crash site, out of concern that the pesticide might eventually spill into the river and endanger fish downstream.

On Feb. 27, Davidson was seriously injured when his helicopter clipped a power line and crashed while he was spraying herbicide over the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in Valencia, sheriff’s officials said.