Over a decade ago, LeBron James announced that he was taking his talents to South Beach. Saturday afternoon, a helicopter took its airframe, engine, rotors and skids into South Beach. Sunbathers and swimmers had a Saturday to remember as a helicopter crashed in front of them. Many at the scene took to the water at Miami Beach to pull people out of the aircraft.
Yesterday afternoon, a Robinson R44 crashed just offshore of Miami Beach. In footage posted online by the Miami Beach Police Department, the four-seater light helicopter enters the frame heading north and losing altitude at a very high rate. Essentially falling out of the sky, the aircraft splashes down just off the beach. Incredibly, the crash injured no one in the water. The Federal Aviation Administration doesn’t know why the Robinson crashed, but the incident is under investigation.
Beachgoers were the first on the scene to help those in the helicopter. A tourist told WPLG 10, “The whole beach ran to the scene. Probably ten guys pulling the skid down so it didn’t collapse, because it was sitting on the blade. When the blade snapped, the helicopter started going over, so while we are pulling the skid down, two guys were inside pulling the passengers out.” I could say I’d do the same from the relative safety of a keyboard. Honestly, if I were in the same situation, I have no idea how I would react in the moment.
Two of the helicopter’s three occupants were confirmed to be in stable condition by local authorities after being transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital. There isn’t any information about the third person pulled from the helicopter. Not much else is known about the incident, other than everyone is relatively okay and the helicopter definitely isn’t.