A Eurocopter AStar news helicopter, operating under contract for a local NBC affiliate, went down late Tuesday, injuring the three people on board.

The helicopter went down at 1820 while working a story in Brooklyn, NY. Video of the accident shows the aircraft rotating swiftly before impacting the side of a building, sustaining significant fuselage damage and then impacting on the roof of a nearby building. No one outside the aircraft was reported injured, and the three occupants sustained a series of serious injuries though are termed as life-threatening.

The aircraft was crewed by two pilots for the operator, California based Helinet Aviation Services. They were identified as Russ Mowry and Hassan Taan. A reporter on the bird was identified as Andrew Torres.

This is not the first helicopter accident for the NBC affiliate. A pilot was injured and a reporter was killed in an Enstrom crash in 1986 after improper maintenance downed the bird over the Hudson River. Jane Dornacker, who was remembered for an amusing cameo appearance in the Tom Wolfe movie, "The Right Stuff" (playing a nurse involved in testing astronaut candidates) was a traffic reporter for WNBC radio. She could be heard, live, yelling "Hit the water! Hit the water!" as the aircraft went down. Earlier in the year, Dornacker and another pilot escaped injury in an accident that put them in the Hackensack River.

FMI: www.helinetaviation.com