[1][2][3] The Bell 206 JetRanger was operating under Federal Aviation Regulation Part 91 on a noncommercial flight and departed Hollywood Burbank Airport in Burbank on the morning of August 1, 1977, to provide aerial coverage and record video after a wildfire in Santa Barbara, 86 nautical miles (160 km; 100 mi) to the west.

A few minutes later, Powers radioed the control tower at Van Nuys Airport requesting clearance to land there due to low fuel; permission was granted, but the aircraft failed to arrive.

The Bell 206 has superior autorotation characteristics,[5] but as he descended, it is surmised that Powers saw a group of teenagers playing on a baseball diamond and made an abrupt maneuver to avoid them.

At 12:36 pm, the aircraft hit the ground about 50 yards (45 m) from where the boys were playing, gouged a trench twenty feet (6 m) long in the earth, and flipped upside-down.

"[8] The helicopter pilot was 47-year-old Francis Gary Powers, who began flying the JetRanger when he joined KNBC in November 1976.

[4] During the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation, no evidence of failure or malfunction of the aircraft or any of its systems prior to the crash was found.