‘Kaboom!’ Video shows a mobile home go up in flames after fatal helicopter crash

A fiery, dramatic scene played out at the Sebring Falls Mobile Home Park Tuesday in Sebring, Florida, after an experimental gyrocopter, a type of helicopter, crashed into one of the houses, destroying it. Another home was damaged amid the flames.

Two people were killed, reports the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office, and another on the ground was injured. The victims are the pilot, Christopher Lord, 45, and the passenger, Christopher Brugger, 52.

According to a release from HCSO, Lord owned Gyroplaneguy, Inc., and was an instructor as well as test pilot with a number of years’ experience.

“Chris has flown many aircraft to include fixed wing, helicopter, powered parachute, weight shift trike, and thousands of hours in over 34 models of gyroplanes,” reads a sheriff’s office report. “Chris has trained and examined hundreds of students and has touched nearly every state traveling across the USA.”

Witnesses told the station that the gyro seemed in distress before clipping a power line. Then it crashed into a mobile home and burst into flames. Fortunately, no one was home at the time, but a man in a house next door suffered burns on his arm and leg and was transported to a nearby hospital, authorities said.

“The lights went out,” resident Diane Clark told The Highland News Sun. “Then we heard ‘kaboom!’”

The Highlands County Sheriff’s Office will handle the death investigations, and the crash investigation will be conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board. Both federal agencies are currently on scene, report authorities.

This story was originally published October 31, 2018 at 4:31 PM.