A helicopter doing aerial photography crashed off Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park Wednesday, killing one person and injuring two others, officials said.
At 11:20 a.m., two U.S. Customs and Border Protection marine interdiction agents working in the area overheard mayday calls from a good samaritan reporting a helicopter crash just off Nixon Beach in Biscayne Bay. Those agents were the first responders on scene and were able to pull the two passengers from the water.
Meanwhile, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s Marine Unit also responded to the crash site and found that same good samaritan trying to help the pilot. The marine unit took the pilot to the nearby No Name Harbour inside of Bill Baggs, where City of Miami firefighters attempted life-saving measures but the pilot was declared dead.
Both passengers were also taken to No Name Harbour, where City of Miami Fire Rescue and Key Biscayne Fire Rescue took them to a nearby location where Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Air Rescue was waiting and airlifted them to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, the two survivors were in critical but stable condition, Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said during a news conference.
All three aboard the helicopter were adult men but have not been identified as the sheriff’s office works to identify their next of kin.
READ MORE: Helicopter crashes off Key Biscayne killing one, injuring two
FlightAware data showed a Robinson R44 II helicopter took off at 11:02 a.m. from North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines and was in the air for 15 minutes before dropping off radar in Biscayne Bay.
The helicopter’s tail number is registered to Global Aerials Inc., based out of North Perry. State corporation records identified a Miami Lakes man as the company’s sole agent. His phone voicemail and Facebook account advertises another company, Tour Helicopter.
The Independent called Tour Helicopter late Wednesday but the company could not confirm the identity of the pilot and said they had not been provided with any information yet. The Independent is not naming this pilot until authorities have identified next of kin and can confirm his identity.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office is leading the investigation into the death while the National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed that it is investigating the crash.
The helicopter had been chartered and was filming boats on the water at the time of the crash, according to the sheriff and an NTSB spokesperson. Investigators could not yet provide details on that charter company. Also, whether Wednesday’s stormy weather conditions played a role will be part of the investigation.
The helicopter involved was a Robinson R44 II series, which is a 4-seater. The R44 II series has two models, the Raven II and the Clipper II, both of which have a two-bladed rotor system. The Clipper II models come equipped with either fixed utility or pop-out floats, designed for emergencies and which inflate within two or three seconds of being activated.
Aerial video from local TV stations helicopters show a dive team on scene near the crash site. The only visible part of the helicopter were two yellow floats. Cordero-Stutz said it was unclear whether the pilot had deployed the helicopter’s flotation devices or if they had deployed automatically.
“At this time, we really do not have any information as to what the cause of this crash is,” she said.
The helicopter remained underwater and it was unclear when it would be removed as local investigators await federal investigators. Weather conditions would also play a role of when.
During that news conference, Cordero-Stutz said she did not have the identity of the good samaritan but that they were very grateful for that individual.
“Not only on behalf of your sheriff, to say thank you for what he or she did but on behalf of those family members, I am sure they would have wanted that anyone in that situation would have done the same thing,” she said.
Helicopter in previous crashes
Another Robinson chopper – a different model – crashed off Key Biscayne in April 2024. The pilot walked away from that crash.
The Robinson R44 II series — the one in Wednesday’s crash — has been involved in 63 other accidents across the country during the past five years, according to NTSB data. Of those prior accidents, six of them resulted in at least one fatality.
In Florida, there were four crashes involving a Robinson R44 II in the past five years, the most recent occurring just last month.
Just after 11 p.m. on August 12, a 2023 Robinson R44 Raven II took off from a private home in Ocala. After getting about 700 feet above ground, the pilot reported that the helicopter began to shake violently, according to the NTSB’s preliminary report. After suffering engine failure, the pilot attempted to make an emergency landing in a field near Anthony, Fla., ultimately crash landing on its right side. In
The investigation into that crash is still on-going. The pilot and one passenger suffered minor injuries while the helicopter was substantially damaged.
This story was originally published in the Key Biscayne Independent, a WLRN News partner.
