Saturday started off easy enough. My first assignment was a high school graduation and then I was slated to shoot a Unity festival downtown. Well as often happen in the news business - those plans went right out the window. As I was leaving the graduation I get a call about a helicopter that crashed on Catalina Island. I headed to the newsroom and then to San Pedro where I hopped on a boat to Two Harbors. A little over an hour later I was standing about 50 yards from the wreckage of an Island Express helicopter that crashed in the isthmus between Isthmus Cove and Catalina Harbor in the Two Harbors area of Catallina Island.
Two Harbors is a very small city, there are only 298 residents and one boat a day from the mainland (or as the locals call it "overtown").
After shooting pictures of the investigators and the L.A. County coroner removing the bodies I had to search for a place to spend the night. Being Memorial Day weekend - and the fact that there is only one hotel in the city - I thought I might be forced in to an impromptu camping trip . But I got lucky and found the last available room. The reporter from KNX radio and the NTSB investigator were not so lucky, they had to take a taxi to Avalon (about $200 and 1 1/2 hours).
Three people died in the crash, including the pilot, a crew member and a school teacher. Three others were injured.
