Sheriff’s Department will temporarily provide air patrols to Huntington Beach after deadly helicopter crash – Orange County Register

With Huntington Beach grounding its other two police helicopters after The crash of the third one into the port of Newport on Saturdaykilling one pilot and injuring another, the Sheriff’s Department would step in and provide air patrols to four cities.

Besides serving its city, Huntington Beach also provides air patrols for Irvine, Costa Mesa, and Newport Beach. Currently, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, using helicopters other than Huntington Beach, will support cities from the air.

“We will always help when we need it,” says Sgt. Todd Hylton, sheriff’s spokesman, on Monday, February 21.

Jennifer Carey, a police spokeswoman, said two other Huntington Beach helicopters, also a McDonnell Douglas 500N, will remain on the city’s airstrip until they are fully inspected.

“We’re not flying right now,” she said. “There is no reason to believe there are any problems with our remaining two helicopters, but we are landing them with extreme caution.”

The city is still deciding who will inspect the remaining two helicopters. Huntington Beach Police have some helicopter mechanics on staff, but the city can hire independent inspectors to do the work.

“We weren’t sure if (the mechanics) would feel comfortable doing that,” Carey said. “They are very close to the pilots.”

Saturday night accident killed 44-year-old officer Nicholas Vella. The helicopter took off from near the Huntington Beach Sports Complex about half an hour before landing in Newport Beach for a reported skirmish over the Balboa Peninsula. After hovering over Balboa Avenue, the helicopter suddenly plunged into harbor waters at the southernmost tip of the Lido Peninsula.

The injured officer left the hospital on Sunday. It has yet to be announced which officer is at the helm. Both are certified pilots.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what happened. An investigator said two pilots reported mechanical problems with the helicopter shortly before the plane crashed.

An NTSB spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

On Sunday, the agency, with help from a crane company and the Sheriff’s Department divers, lifted the crashed helicopter out of the water. An NTSB investigator at the scene said they would load the helicopter onto the back of the truck and take it to Phoenix, where they have a hangar to examine the downed plane.

The helicopter has been in service since 1998 and was last certified in 2016, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. Two other helicopters were purchased new in 2001 and 2007, records show.

Huntington Beach has had helicopters since 1968, around which time many other local police departments started having their own planes.

According to the city’s website, Huntington Beach police purchased the smaller McDonnell Douglas 500N helicopters because they fly so smoothly. These models do not have tail rotors, and are therefore about 30% quieter than other standard helicopters.

Other local agencies also use McDonnell Douglas helicopters in the same family as the 500N: sheriff departments in San Bernardino and Riverside counties all use the 500E with tail rotors. The Pasadena and Hawthorne Police Departments both have 500E.

The Glendale Police Department has a 500N built in 2014.

Staff writer Brian Rokos contributed to this story.