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.Who was Francis Gary Powers?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.Also Read | Los Angeles helicopter crash update: NBC News chopper goes down near Chatsworth SUV-Metro bus crash site; scary visualsPowers 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.What we know about the recent NBC chopper crashThe 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.Also Read | Chatsworth helicopter crash: Chopper that crashed during road mishap coverage belonged to NBC, confirms anchor“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.