Lone survivor of 2018 Newport Beach helicopter crash that killed 3 details harrowing seconds before impact to investigators

The pilot of a helicopter that crashed nearly two years ago into a Newport Beach neighborhood killing three on board apologized to his passengers just before the fatal impact, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.

He thought he could “save it,” the lone surviving passenger told investigators.

The report, issued earlier this month, does not say what caused the copter to go down. But it does provide distressing details of what the survivor experienced and what witnesses on the ground saw.

“I remember looking straight down between my legs through the glass at the ground rushing toward us and saying, ‘God, no! God, no! No, God! No, God!’ and instinctively preparing for impact,” the surviving passenger wrote to investigators.

“Everything was white for a split second as my mind and body tried to comprehend what happened, and that I was still alive.”

On the afternoon of Jan. 30, 2018, residents of the northeast end of the Upper Newport Bay heard a loud noise and left their homes to find the four-seat Robinson R44 Clipper I on the ground, twisted and with parts scattered about.

The helicopter had clipped two roofs and ended up against a home on Egret Court in the Bayview Terrace community just about one minute after taking off from John Wayne Airport en route to Catalina Island. The passengers were headed to the island for a lunch.

Pilot Joseph Anthony “Pepe” Tena, 60, and passengers Kimberly Lynne Watzman, 45, and Brian Reichelt, 56 were killed in the crash. One person on the ground had minor injuries, and the lone surviving passenger came away with serious ones.

Though the survivor said the pilot told the group “something’s wrong,” no distress signals were sent.

One witness who saw the helicopter while driving southbound on the 73 highway reported to investigators that it was “going down quickly, diagonally.”

Once it cleared the roadway “it did look like the pilot attempted autorotation or pulled back, showing that he/she was aware and attempting to avoid a crash or respond to an engine problem,” said the witness, who described himself as a past student pilot.

Autorotation is a descending maneuver when the engine is without power; the rotor blades are driven by the upward flow of the air through the rotor.

The helicopter was leased to Revolution Aviation, a flight school and touring company based out of John Wayne Airport. The company changed names then shuttered altogether, according to aviation industry publication Vertical.

The company’s head pilot and CEO told the magazine the closure was because of a shortage of qualified flight instructors and increasing operating costs out of the airport.

A resident of the community where the helicopter crashed wrote to investigators that she was in her driveway getting ready to leave when she “saw the helicopter coming in too low.”

She saw it clear the power lines then hit two of her neighbors’ homes. She called 911 and rushed to the scene until paramedics arrived.

The surviving passenger had vivid memories of the incident.

“I remember the intense pain, the taste of blood, the broken glass and crumpled metal around me as I was basically halfway in and out of the helicopter, almost on the ground,” he wrote to investigators.

He yelled repeatedly for help and for someone to call 911, meanwhile feeling the pilot laying on him. Though he tried to stir him, the aircraft’s navigator was unresponsive.

“Still yelling for help and finally getting some people to yell back, I managed to get to my seat-belt control and unlatch (it), which basically let me fall/roll/fight my way out, crawling and then walking to the first open space I could find and collapsing on my back,” he wrote to investigators.

NTSB officials said Monday, Dec. 30, that the cause of the crash would be determined at the end of the investigation, which could take as long as 24 months from when the incident occurred.