On July 23, 1982 at approximately 2:20 a.m., the production of John Landis's segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie suffered one of the most horrific on-set accidents in Hollywood history. A Bell UH‑1 helicopter flown by pilot Dorcey Wingo was being used in the climactic rescue sequence Landis had added (at the urging of Warner Bros. executives Lucy Fisher and Terry Semel) to give Vic Morrow’s racially abrasive protagonist a redemptive moment rescuing two Vietnamese children. The sequence—shot at night in defiance of California child labor laws—employed pyrotechnic effects. Two child actors, seven‑year‑old Myca Dinh Le and six‑year‑old Renee Shin‑Yi Chen, had been hired “under the table,” without the required permits, night waivers, teacher or welfare worker on set. Associate producer George Folsey Jr. is on record as having concealed the children’s presence from firefighters and a fire safety officer. During the shot, a technician detonated two explosive charges in close succession; the explosions struck the low‑flying helicopter, damaging rotor blades and the tail rotor. The aircraft spun out of control and crashed onto the actors in a shallow pond; Vic Morrow and Myca Dinh Le were decapitated by rotor blades and Renee Chen was crushed by the helicopter’s strut—deaths that were instantaneous and gruesome.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
The Tragic 1982 Helicopter Disaster That Killed Vic Morrow and Two Child Actors on Twilight Zone: The Movie
Twilight Zone: The Movie (Vic Morrow segment) / 1980s
On July 23, 1982 at approximately 2:20 a.m., the production of John Landis's segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie suffered one of the most horrific on-set accidents in Hollywood history. A Bell UH‑1 helicopter flown by pilot Dorcey Wingo was being used in the climactic rescue sequence Landis had added (at the urging of Warner Bros. executives Lucy Fisher and Terry Semel) to give Vic Morrow’s racially abrasive protagonist a redemptive moment rescuing two Vietnamese children. The sequence—shot at night in defiance of California child labor laws—employed pyrotechnic effects. Two child actors, seven‑year‑old Myca Dinh Le and six‑year‑old Renee Shin‑Yi Chen, had been hired “under the table,” without the required permits, night waivers, teacher or welfare worker on set. Associate producer George Folsey Jr. is on record as having concealed the children’s presence from firefighters and a fire safety officer. During the shot, a technician detonated two explosive charges in close succession; the explosions struck the low‑flying helicopter, damaging rotor blades and the tail rotor. The aircraft spun out of control and crashed onto the actors in a shallow pond; Vic Morrow and Myca Dinh Le were decapitated by rotor blades and Renee Chen was crushed by the helicopter’s strut—deaths that were instantaneous and gruesome.
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