A helicopter filming a Chuck Norris movie crashed, killing four people, after its tail struck a wall, a witness said. An aviation official reported strong winds in the area at the time.
The other four people aboard were seriously injured in Tuesday's crash.The dead included two Americans, gaffer Don Marshall and key grip Mike Graham, Gadi Danzig, an Israeli cameraman, and the Filipino pilot, officials said. No hometowns were available.
Norris was not on the set of "Stranglehold: Delta Force II" when the crash occurred, although he was in the Philippines, Cannon Entertainment spokesman Randy Maiers said from Los Angeles.
American character actor John P. Ryan, a Delta Force commander in the film, suffered a dislocated shoulder. He and three others were transferred Wednesday to the U.S.-run Clark Air Base, 50 miles north of Manila.
Police investigator Jaime Talay said the French-made Dauphin helicopter had just taken off to film a scene when it veered sharply to the left, crashed in a 40-foot ravine and exploded.
Talay said the scene called for the single-rotor, 14-passenger helicopter to make a tricky maneuver by tilting sharply and diving, and it took several moments before the crew on the ground realized the crash was real.
The crash occurred about 5 p.m. near an unfinished mansion once owned by former President Ferdinand Marcos in a mountain resort 30 miles south of Manila.
Romeo Ferma, a firetruck operator who witnessed the crash and put out the fire, told reporters the helicopter took off from a hillside helipad, circled the mansion once and then clipped a wall with its tail.
"Afterward, it nose-dived and caught fire," Ferma said.
In California, Cannon Entertainment, the film's maker, said the scene was not considered hazardous.
But Galileo Baliqued, chief of the aviation safety section of the Bureau of Air Transport, said there were strong winds in the area Tuesday that were "not very nice for helicopter flying." Tropical storm Brenda was approaching.
Oscar Alejandro, acting director of the Board of Air Transportation, said investigators reached the site early today and were interviewing witnesses.
He said the investigation was being hampered because the pilot was dead and all the survivors were hospitalized with serious injuries.
Filipino reporters said soldiers and members of the crew tried to confiscate film at the hospital where survivors were taken late Tuesday.
"Even I was not allowed to enter (the crash site) until I told them who I was," Alejandro said. "They (film crew) are not very talkative."
Besides Ryan, Cannon said the others injured were Geoff Brewer, an actor-stuntman from Los Angeles; Rami Siman-Tov, an Israeli crew member and actor Mateo Gomez, a native of the Dominican Republic who lives in the United States.