Local News in Brief : Irvine : NTSB Assigns No Blame in Police Copters’ Crash

Without attaching fault to anyone involved, the National Transportation Safety Board has released its findings on the collision of two police helicopters over Irvine in March, 1987.

The report, completed last month, details the circumstances of the collision, which killed two Costa Mesa police officers and a civilian observer when the Costa Mesa aircraft collided with a Newport Beach helicopter during the chase of a car theft suspect.

Those who died in the crash were Costa Mesa Police officers James D. Ketchum and Officer John W. Libolt, both 39, and 27-year-old civilian observer Jeffrey A. Pollard of Tustin.

The report says both helicopters took off at about 9 p.m., and as the stolen car headed south on MacArthur Boulevard, the Costa Mesa crew entered Newport Beach airspace and asked the Newport Beach officers “if they wanted to call the pursuit.”

While the Newport Beach crew directed the chase by air, it flew behind the Costa Mesa craft at an altitude of 500 feet, the report says. The Costa Mesa craft, which was at a lower altitude, turned right just before the accident.

The Newport Beach pilot told investigators “he caught a glimpse of the (Costa Mesa craft’s) cockpit out of the corner of his eye immediately before impact,” the report says. The Newport Beach craft lost power and spun downward. The other craft crashed into a field. Examination of the Costa Mesa helicopter showed that a fire erupted after impact, destroying much of the craft and “all of the cockpit evidence,” the report says. The Newport Beach craft was also burned in a post-impact fire, but its occupants were able to escape.

Drug and alcohol tests of the crew of both helicopters were negative, the report says.