CEDAR CITY, Utah (KUTV) — Cedar City announced that it will reassess the safety of next year’s Santa helicopter landing, following an incident in which construction debris was sucked into the rotors, prompting a change in landing plans.
It has been an annual tradition for Santa to land on Main Street before around 10,000 attendees for a Christmas tree lighting event.
This year, the pilot made a last-minute change to return to the airport after debris rose in the air.
“We’ll take all necessary precautions next year, and we’ll consider debris,” said John Zierow, a public information officer with the city. “We’re learning every year how to make it a wonderful event, and we’re going to take lessons from this year, and we’ll apply them to next year.”
The pilot was a senior instructor from Southern Utah University who has been landing planes for years.
“Southern Utah University has an aviation program with excellent pilots,” Zierow said. “They do thousands and thousands of hours of training, and they help us bring Santa to downtown by flying him in on a helicopter.”
Mike Mower, the executive director and chief flight instructor with SUU Aviation, said the pilot planned to abort the landing once he noticed a large amount of debris moving up on the road, including dirt, sand, and trash.
“He was making that decision to abort the landing when the piece of fabric or other material went through the rotor,” said Mower.
The fabric hit the rotor blades and turned into a confetti over the crowd.
“We don’t know exactly what item got pushed up in the air. It was some construction debris of some sort. It wasn’t a decoration,” Zierow said.
There was construction outside the Stratford Court Hotel, right where the landing occurred.
The pilots were safe, and there was no damage to the aircraft. One person reported debris hit their hand, but the city has no formal reported injuries.
“We have empathy for anyone that was impacted by the experience,” Zierow said. “We want them to feel the warmth of the holiday season and the love of their close friends and family. We’re providing them an opportunity with this event to come out and just feel that festive spirit.”
Mower said they had law enforcement, the fire department, and off-duty pilots present to ensure people didn’t get too close to the aircraft and that the ground was clear.
“They’re in constant contact with the pilot via radio,” Mower said.
They also do pre-landing inspections.
“They have a plan in advance, a contingency plan, in case there is any reason to divert from landing downtown,” Zierow said.
In this case, he added, “It could have been within a few hours after the safety checks, something might have changed, and some debris was in the area.”
Mower said there are always things they can do to improve the operation but said next year would likely follow the same pre-landing inspection of the site.
As for whether the event will continue next year, that was still in discussion.
“If we think we can do a safe operation, and we believe that we’ve got the community desire and the community interest to do it, then that’s something that we’ll take into consideration,” Mower said.
Zierow added, “If any situations come up that just make it impossible to do the landing, then we just call it off. We’re not going to take the risk that makes it unsafe for anyone.”
While the incident caused a delay for the rest of the evening, Zierow said the night continued to bring the community together.
“The crowd was very excited to see Santa, and they had to wait a little bit longer, but he made it,” he said. “The police officers gave him an escort, and they drove him in. The excellent pilots with SUU made a great decision to put safety first. We support them. We trust them completely. And if we do it again next year, we fully trust them to do an excellent job.”
The city encouraged any residents with concerns or questions to reach out directly.
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