2 Police Copters Crash in Irvine Chase; 3 Killed

Two police helicopters involved in a high-speed car chase collided over Irvine and crashed Tuesday night, killing three people, authorities said.

Initial police reports indicated that the three dead were in a Costa Mesa police helicopter and the two injured men were officers in a Newport Beach police aircraft.

Identities of the dead and injured were not immediately released.

The helicopters, which plunged to the ground without a word of radio transmission, had joined ground units in a chase that continued after the copter crash. Before it was over, the chase covered much of Orange County. The helicopters had been trying to help Santa Ana police pursue a fleeing suspect in an allegedly stolen car when they collided and fell near Bonita Canyon Road, east of MacArthur Boulevard, officials said.

“There was a flash of light. They collided. They fell to the ground,” reporter Bob Turr said in a live report on KFWB radio Tuesday night. “The Newport helicopter is lying upside down in a field. That’s where they were able to pull the survivors from the wreckage.”

Turr was aboard a helicopter that followed the police chase.

“The Costa Mesa (helicopter) burst into flames. Looking at that wreckage, nobody could have survived that crash,” Turr said while circling over the crash scene.

The crash site was described as an open field near the UC Irvine campus. There was a brief fire but it was extinguished shortly after firefighters arrived, the Orange County Fire Department said.

Irvine Police Lt. Al Muir said the Costa Mesa police helicopter normally carries one pilot and one observer. “We can’t account for the other body at this time,” he said.

Newport Beach Police Sgt. Doug Thomas said the injured Newport Beach officers were taken to Western Medical Center, Santa Ana.

“Our information is that our two men were injured but that their injuries weren’t life-threatening,” said Thomas, about an hour after the crash.

Newport Beach Police Lt. Jim Carson said the injured men were in their 30s. He said both men were “in pretty good condition.”

“One is in surgery for some cuts, but evidently he is not in a life-threatening condition. The other was admitted for observation and is in pretty good shape.”

Santa Ana police identified the suspect in the car chase as Vincent William Acosta, 19, of Anaheim. Police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said early today that the pursuit began about 10 p.m. Tuesday when two Santa Ana officers tried to stop Acosta in the southeast end of the city for reasons she said were not immediately known.

“During the pursuit, the license plate on the car came back stolen,” Thomas said.

Thomas said there was no indication that the suspect was injured during the pursuit or his subsequent arrest.

Acosta was being transported to the Santa Ana police station to await questioning by Santa Ana investigators in connection with the stolen vehicle. Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Chavez said other agencies would be involved in the investigation, and a determination would be made later about whether other, more serious charges would be sought.

Chavez said representatives of the multiple law enforcement agencies involved in the nighttime pursuit were joining forces at a command post set up at an undisclosed location in Irvine early today “to put this thing together.”

Police said that during the chase, officers from Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana and Anaheim joined the pursuit. Acosta reportedly drove through Santa Ana and Newport Beach, then up the 55 Freeway to the 91 Freeway. He stopped his car, which by this time had a blown right front tire, near Anaheim and Elm streets in Anaheim, where he fled on foot and was captured.

Officials of the Federal Aviation Administration said witnesses to the helicopter collisionwould be interviewed by FAA investigators who were dispatched to the scene Tuesday night.

After the auto chase began, said Irvine Police Lt. Muir, the Costa Mesa Police Department helicopter joined in the pursuit and radioed the Newport Beach helicopter, asking it to join in. Muir said that a few minutes later, the Huntington Beach Police Department helicopter, which was also in the nighttime sky, radioed a question: Had there been any word from the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa choppers?

At about the same time, an Irvine police officer in a patrol car reported that he thought he saw smoke in the Bonita Canyon Road area, east of MacArthur Boulevard. Muir said the Irvine officer drove to an area about a quarter of a mile east of MacArthur and saw the wreckage of the Costa Mesa Police helicopter.

The Newport Beach helicopter landed in an Irvine field off Bonita Canyon Drive, about a quarter of a mile from the burning wreckage of the Costa Mesa chopper, police said.

Newport Beach police said there was no distress call or indication from the two helicopters that they were in trouble.

“The first word we received of the crash was when we started receiving calls from witnesses who saw the collision and the crash and the fire,” said Thomas of the Newport Beach Police Department.

“We more or less were getting worried because we hadn’t heard anything. Then these calls started coming in. People in the area said they saw the collision, and they called us about it.”

The area where the two helicopters came down is not near any street lights or residences and was described by observers at the scene as being “very dark, with hilly, grassy slopes.” After the crash, however, the area became awash with lighted emergency vehicles, and helicopters circled overhead with their lights.

Times staff writers Nieson Himmel and Kristina Lindgren and staff photographer Mark Boster contributed to this story.