Twilight Zone accident
| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | July 23, 1982 |
| Summary | Loss of control after tail rotor failure caused by pyrotechnics |
| Site | Valencia, Santa Clarita, California, United States |
| Passengers | 5 |
| Crew | 1 |
| Fatalities | 3 (on ground) |
| Injuries (non-fatal) | 6 |
| Survivors | 6 (all onboard the helicopter) |
| Aircraft type | Bell UH-1B Iroquois |
| Operator | Western Helicopters |
| Registration | N87701 |
On July 23, 1982, a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter crashed at Indian Dunes in Valencia, Santa Clarita, California, during the making of Twilight Zone: The Movie. The crash killed three people on the ground—actor Vic Morrow and two child actors, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen—as well as injuring the six helicopter passengers. The incident led to years of civil and criminal action and was directly responsible for the introduction of new procedures and safety standards within the filmmaking industry.
The film featured four sequences, one of which was based on a 1961 Twilight Zone episode, "A Quality of Mercy." In the script, character Bill Connor (Morrow) is a bigot who travels back in time to suffer through various eras of persecution, such as Nazi-occupied Europe and the racial segregation of the American South during the mid-20th century. He then finds himself in the midst of the Vietnam War, where he decides to protect some Vietnamese children from American troops.
Director John Landis violated California's child labor laws by hiring 7-year-old Myca Dinh Le and 6-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen (Chinese: 陳欣怡; pinyin: Chén Xīnyí) without the required permits. Landis and several other staff members were also responsible for a number of labor violations connected with other people involved in the accident, all of which came to light after the incident had occurred.
Le and Chen were being paid under the table to circumvent California's child labor laws, which did not permit children to work at night. Landis opted not to seek a special waiver, either because he did not think he would get permission for such a late hour or because he knew he would never get approval to have young children as part of a scene with a large number of explosives. The casting agents were unaware that the children would be involved in the scene. Associate producer George Folsey, Jr. told the children's parents not to tell any firefighters on set that the children were part of the scene, and also hid them from a fire safety officer who also worked as a welfare worker. A fire safety officer was concerned the blasts would cause a crash, but did not tell Landis of his concerns. Morrow's friend and former Combat! co-star Dick Peabody wrote that Morrow's last words before the shot took place were: "I've got to be crazy to do this shot. I should've asked for a double."
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