![]() The same could be said for on-set advocates for the children, including their parents.Įven Morrow could have looked at the plan and said "Fuck that."īut I suspect they were all intimidated by the powerful director and either just sat on their hands or participated as directed as the scene progressed. Safety officers and firefighters on-scene may have not known the full plan in advance, but they were clearly empowered to stop things as soon as the plan became apparent and the scene started to unfold. Yeah, he's working for the director, but again, you have responsibility to do your job safely and throw a flag when you are asked to do something unsafe. The pyrotechnic guy was setting off explosives with a helicopter directly overhead. The pilot agreed to fly in those conditions.and it is always on the pilot to ultimately decide what he can do safely, for himself, his crew, and the folks on the ground. He was also apparently warned of the risk of losing the helicopter and seemingly didn't care. His culpability is magnified by hiding the full extent of his plan (and associated dangers) from many people, including the children's parents. The director planned the scene, with reckless disregard for actors and crew, and then orchestrated it, to its fatal conclusion. ![]() Wingo answered in the negative, noting that the helicopter was "out of control." It's incredible."ĭ'Agostino, during the cross-examination, which will continue today, asked Wingo if he blamed himself for the accident because he also had five seconds to take action after the aircraft's tail rotor was destroyed. ![]() They're blaming the parents, they're blaming the fire safety officers, they're blaming everyone. Saying it sounded like Wingo was blaming Morrow, the prosecutor declared: "How could he possibly have thought that Vic Morrow could have done anything to escape that helicopter under those circumstances and conditions? It's a classic example of a defense. (But) it's one of the small, very small, comforts I have had" in dealing with it, he added.ĭ'Agostino said outside the courtroom that she found Wingo's testimony "quite amazing." "There's nothing easy about living with this, nothing. And that is something that I'll never forget."Īsked if Morrow could have evaded the lethal swath of the helicopter's main rotor blade, which had a diameter of 44 feet, Wingo told reporters, "I hold a secret place in my heart that says he would have been able to do something. It distressed me to the max that he did not look up at the helicopter as I'd asked him to do. "I'm certainly not blaming Vic Morrow," the veteran pilot said. Outside the courtroom later, Wingo explained that he was not trying to cast any blame on Morrow for the 1982 film set tragedy, which occurred after the fireball from a special-effects explosion struck the helicopter's tail rotor. "And I would hope to God that he could have used those five seconds to (escape)." "He had over five seconds between the time that the sound of the helicopter changed and that impact," Wingo said. "Away from the helicopter," replied Wingo, 40, who said he had previously instructed Morrow to be prepared to take action if he ever heard the sound coming from the helicopter change considerably. Morrow to run?" asked an incredulous D'Agostino, noting that Morrow was carrying the two youngsters in his arms while standing almost knee-deep in water as the helicopter, which had been hovering at 24 feet, spun toward him. "It extremely distresses me to the max that he never looked up," Wingo said emotionally in the midst of a caustic round of cross-examination led by the prosecutor in the involuntary manslaughter trial, Deputy Dist. "Twilight Zone" helicopter pilot Dorcy Wingo testified Tuesday that he is distraught to this day that actor Vic Morrow did not try to evade the plummeting aircraft in the five seconds after it went out of control, striking and killing Morrow and two child actors.
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