The Region : Pilot Tells of Safety Plan

“Twilight Zone” helicopter pilot Dorcey Wingo testified that he had been prepared to take steps, which he did not inform director John Landis about, in case his aircraft encountered problems with special-effects explosives during a filming sequence that ultimately proved fatal. Wingo told Los Angeles Superior Court jurors that, because of problems that occurred during an earlier sequence, he devised a “safety plan beyond the safety plan” to fly his aircraft in a wide arc away from the film set if necessary. Unfortunately, the helicopter was struck by the fireball of a special-effects explosive and plummeted to the ground, killing actor Vic Morrow and two child actors below. Wingo, who will undergo his fourth day of cross-examination today, is charged with involuntary manslaughter along with Landis and three associates in the actors’ deaths.