Who was Francis Gary Powers? NBC chopper crash brings flashbacks of pilot's 1977 death

A news helicopter crashed in the Chatsworth community of Los Angeles while covering a bus collision Tuesday evening, September 15. The crash killed three people, NBC News reported.

Who was Francis Gary Powers? NBC chopper crash brings flashbacks of pilot's 1977 deathKNBC’s Colleen Williams has now confirmed that the chopper was an NBC helicopter.

The crash brings flashbacks of the death of Francis Gary Powers, who died in a 1977 Encino helicopter crash on August 1, 1977, while working as a news helicopter pilot for KNBC in Los Angeles.

Powers was an American pilot who served as a United States Air Force officer and a CIA employee. He is best known for his involvement in the 1960 U-2 incident, when he was shot down while flying a secret CIA spying mission over the Soviet Union.

Although Powers survived, he was captured and sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet prison for espionage. He served 21 months of his sentence and was then released in a prisoner swap in 1962.

Powers returned to the US, and then worked at Lockheed as a test pilot for the U-2, and later as a helicopter pilot for Los Angeles news station KNBC. He ultimately died in 1977 when the KNBC helicopter he was flying crashed.

On the day of his death, Powers was piloting a Bell 206 JetRanger helicopter for Los Angeles TV station KNBC Channel 4 over the San Fernando Valley. He had been recording video after brush fires in Santa Barbara County and was heading back to Burbank Airport when the aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed at the Sepulveda Dam recreational area in Encino, California.

The chopper crashed in a parking lot at or near a self-storage facility in the community, which is in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department and news video on the ground from NBC Los Angeles. NBC News reported on air that the aircraft involved in the crash was their own. It earlier said that it had lost contact with those on board.

“We knew it was a news chopper, we knew we’d lost contact with our people out there, and we’ve just received the confirmation that, in fact, News Chopper 4 went down just before 7 o’clock tonight in Chatsworth,” anchor Colleen Williams said.

“We’re going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, to process and to regroup,” Williams added, her voice often emotional.

ILM & SkySound editorial contributor Clayton Sandell wrote in a post on X, “It’s heartbreaking to listen to KNBC’s Coleen Williams describe a scene involving the station’s helicopter. I cannot imagine having to be live on the air at a time like this. My condolences to everyone at @NBCLA and everyone now having to report on this tragedy.”

While three people died at the scene, another individual was rushed to a hospital in unknown condition, the fire department said. Fire Capt. Branden Silverman said at the scene that at least one of the deceased appeared to be a pedestrian on the ground when the chopper crashed.

Sumanti Sen covers everything that’s happening in the US, from politics to entertainment, but her expertise lies in covering crime news. She has comprehensively chronicled the Idaho student murders, the Laken Riley and Iryna Zarutska cases, and the killing of Charlie Kirk, among other incidents. Over the years, she has interviewed several victims/families of victims of crimes seeking justice. She digs up stories that might otherwise remain unheard, and does her bit to ensure that victims and survivors’ voices are heard. Sumanti’s many years of experience also include interviews with Hamas attack survivors and mental health experts, among others. Her coverage of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and interviews with survivors of the tragedy, coupled with her other works including the Titan submersible coverage, earned her the Digi Journo of the Quarter award during her first year at Hindustan Times. Sumanti actively tracks missing person cases in the United States, and peruses Reddit and other social media platforms to bring to light cases that frequently elude public attention. She has extensively covered the disappearances of Nancy Guthrie, Thomas Medlin, Beau Mann, and Sudiksha Konanki, among others. When not at work, you will either find her with her novels, or with her beloved rescue pooches.Read More