WATCH: A news helicopter in Seattle crashed near the Space Needle early on Tuesday morning leaving two people dead
TORONTO – At least two people are dead and one critically injured after a Seattle news helicopter crashed Tuesday morning near the Seattle Space Needle.
READ MORE: 2 killed in helicopter crash in downtown Seattle
The station reported the helicopter may have hit the side of the building before it exploded in flames and went down, hitting several vehicles on Broad Street.
Firefighters say the injured person is a 37-year-old man who managed to free himself from one of the cars.
MORE: Dramatic images: news helicopter crashes in downtown Seattle
This isn’t the first time helicopters have crashed as TV stations rush to cover the news from above major cities.
2011: 3 killed after chopper crashes in Australia
On Aug. 18, 2011, an Eurocopter AS355 helicopter crashed and killed the pilot, reporter and cameraman whilst on location.
The news crew had been working on news and feature projects in the Lake Eyre region.
According to the Australian government, the incident was the first fatal accident in Australia involving a twin-engine helicopter since 1986.
2009: CTV camera operator killed in helicopter crash
While shooting footage of tornado damage on Aug. 5, 2009, pilot Roger Belanger and veteran CTV cameraman Hugh Haugland were killed in a helicopter crash in Mont Laurier, Que.
Haughland, 44, was the son of former CTV news anchor Bill Haugland.
“Hugh was, you know, a fantastic cameraman … with incredible passion for the news business and for the people that he covered,” said Jed Kahane, Director of News and Public Affairs for CTV Montreal.
2009: Helicopter crashes near Montreal highway
Rejean Leveille, a traffic journalist for the TVA television network, suffered multiple fractures to the pelvis, ribs and back while the pilot, Antoine Léger, suffered a fracture in the back after their helicopter crashed and burst into flames on Dec. 16, 2009 near a Montreal highway.
The traffic helicopter was filming over Champlain Bridge and crashed in a ditch near Autoroute 10 while trying to make an emergency landing on a nearby heliport.
In May 2011, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada found an electrical problem caused the chopper crash.
2008: Emergency landing after chopper loses power
Just roughly 8 minutes after the pilot and traffic reporter Paul Cavenaugh departed from Palm Beach County Park Airport in Lantana, Fla. in November 2008, their helicopter lost power and was forced to make an emergency landing. The tail boom of the helicopter was severed in the accident. The pilot suffered minor injuries but Cavenaugh fractured his vertebra.
In 2009, the NTSB determined the crashed occurred because “a loose pressure compressor line from the power turbine governor to the fuel control unit and the “B”-nut was found loose to the point of no thread engagement.”
2007: 2 helicopters crash in midair
In 2007, two news helicopters from stations KNXV-TV and KTVK collided in midair in Phoenix while covering a police chase, sending fiery wreckage plummeting onto a park.
Four people in the helicopters were killed.
The crash prompted changes at the stations in how they operated their helicopter crews.
– with files from The Associated Press
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