Helicopter crashes during filming of reality TV show in Texas
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Two men were injured in a helicopter crash Saturday during the filming of a reality television show in Grimes County, Texas, authorities said.
The helicopter made a hard landing and suffered substantial damage, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday. The FAA and the Texas Department of Public Safety said they will investigate.
The chopper was one of two helicopters filming when a gust of wind spun the aircraft out of control, a Texas DPS spokesman said. The helicopter struck a tree and landed on its right side in a wooded area. Its injured occupants were taken to Bryan St. Joseph regional hospital.
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A recent Los Angeles Times review of U.S. government data found that nearly one-third of all fatalities on film and TV shoots during the last five years has involved reality shows.
The Associated Press reported that the injured men in Texas were filming an episode of the reality show “A Haunting” for Destination America. The network, an offshoot of Discovery Communications, boasts programming such as “Mountain Monsters” and “Paranormal Survivor.”
The network’s website said a new season of the show, which follows people who say they’ve had encounters with supernatural forces, is “coming in 2015.” Discovery Communications did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
However, officials at the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Department of Public Safety on Sunday told The Times that the men were filming a “hunting reality show.”
There were 20 deaths related to motion picture and television production during the five-year period that ended in December, according to The Times’ recent report.
Helicopters were involved in two of the worst U.S. filming accidents in recent decades: a 2013 crash in Acton that killed three people during production of a reality TV show and the 1982 “Twilight Zone: The Movie” crash near Santa Clarita that killed actor Vic Morrow and two children.
More recently, a helicopter crash in Argentina in March caused the deaths of 10 people while shooting the series “Dropped” for French TV, in which participants are abandoned in the wilderness and must find their way back to civilization.
Staff writer Richard Verrier contributed to this report.
For more news on the entertainment industry, follow me @saba_h
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