2 dead in helicopter crash near Seattle Space Needle

Updated: 2014-03-19 11:46

(Agencies)

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2 dead in helicopter crash near Seattle Space Needle

Wreckage is pictured where a television news helicopter crashed near the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington March 18, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

SEATTLE - A news helicopter crashed and burst into flames in downtown Seattle near the Space Needle on Tuesday, killing a pilot and a photographer on board and setting three cars on fire in the popular tourist area, officials said.

The chopper appeared to have fallen to the street as it attempted to take off from a helipad at the top of a television news station, Seattle Fire Department spokesman Kyle Moore told reporters.

Two people were found dead in the wreckage of the helicopter when emergency responders arrived at the scene, while the occupants of three vehicles that caught fire managed to escape, Moore said. One person was in critical condition.

Television station KOMO, an ABC affiliate, said the aircraft was one of its helicopters. Photos posted online by the station showed flames and smoke rising from cars at the scene after the crash.

"I saw it falling, it was coming down head first," Carmen Romero, who had been walking to catch a bus when the crash happened, said. "It hit the car, then flames went up."

Romero said she saw a man engulfed in flames emerge from one of the three vehicles, waving his arms as he ran.

The morning crash, which left burning helicopter fuel streaming down the road and debris strewn on grass at the base of the Space Needle, occurred in a tourist area that also hosts a children's museum and the Pacific Science Center. The weather was overcast at the time, with little wind.

After the fire was extinguished, the charred vehicles with their windows blown out remained in the street, which was covered in fire-retardant foam. The tail of the chopper was several yards from its main frame.

The two people killed were pilot Gary Pfitzner, who worked for a company that operated the helicopter for the TV station, and photographer Bill Strothman, who shot video for KOMO but had retired from the company and worked as a freelancer, KOMO reported.

"At times like this we are reminded that the media, like many of us, are also public servants," said Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, who visited Strothman's adult children after their father's death.

US Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, said in a statement that the crash was "an unimaginable loss for Seattle's journalism community."

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