Attendee Steve Holm was in the crowd and started listening to the chatter when something seemed strange.
“The helicopter comes down, it’s 20-30 feet off the ground or whatever, and then it goes back up. And everyone’s like, OK, so will it come around and circle and touch down again?” witness Steve Holm said.
“Hey, a piece of material hit that helicopter,” Holm said. “By now, the helicopter is gone. We don’t have time to be scared, okay? I mean, it was out of the way, and then we’re sitting here looking like it could have been really, really bad.”
Cedar City resident Amy Pichette was also in the crowd and had a way to describe it.
“It reminds me of Final Destination, if you think about it, that’s all it replays in my mind, it’s like holy cow, it could have been funny,” she said.
Pichette was also recording when the helicopter came down.
“It happened so fast, my phone was out, something hit my hand. My phone flew across the street,” she said, “Told my oldest (daughter) to flash her phone, and she did, and I’ve got blood dripping down my hand.”
After being hit by debris, she went to the hospital to get stitches, but still thinks it could have been worse.
“My son is 11 years old here, my daughter is 10 years old and my other daughter is 16 years old,” Pichette said. “If my hand hadn’t been there, it would have hit my daughter in the face.”
Michael Mower of Southern Utah University, the school that owns the helicopter, passed by FOX 13.
He said, “As we started coming into the landing zone, it looked like something flew off the roof of some new construction and came down through the rotor system. The pilot made the right call due to extreme safety reasons to abort the landing and exit the area.”
They landed at a nearby airport, and Mower said they walked past the landing zone and only allowed senior pilots to fly Santa.
“The biggest change from this year to years past was really the progress of the hotel that was going up on Main Street. And then, as we walked up, and we were looking at the surface and the surrounding area on Main Street, we didn’t have access to the roof of the building, and that appears to be where it blew up,” Mower said.
So, what exactly was it that exploded?
“Not entirely sure what type of material it was. From the video and the debris we found afterward, it looks like it was a roofing membrane, a plastic membrane that they put on roofs for waterproofing. It was immediately shredded into a million little pieces,” Mower said.
Mower said that although there were no injuries or damage inside the helicopter, next year they may reevaluate surrounding buildings, the landing zone and the distance between the helicopter and residents.
“There’s no way around it, aviation is dangerous and can be dangerous. We make every effort to take the appropriate precautions,” Mower said, “That’s what we do day in and day out. When the pilot in this situation made the call to abort and go around, I wasn’t in the plane, but it was probably fully automated.”
Some residents still don’t want this tradition to end.
Holm said, “When you’re that close to a helicopter it’s an absolute rush. If you’re 200 feet away and you feel the wind blowing in your face and your hair standing straight up, that’s a rush, and it’s amazing.”
While others would be better off going back to the sled and reindeer.
“Don’t land helicopters on Main Street. There are parking garages, there are parks, there’s a huge field there. There’s a baseball field. I mean, yes, it won’t be right in the middle of everybody, but at least they can see the helicopters,” Pichette said.
Cedar City told FOX 13 it will take time to decide whether the helicopter tradition will be maintained next year.
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