Two Killed in MTV Helicopter Chartered To Film “The Challenge” And It Appears that MTV Doesn’t Really Care!
This is tragic. A Bell 206 helicopter was flying over the reservoir at Portreillos de Mendoza dam in Argentina when the chopper went down. It was flying to a shooting location for the MTV reality show “The Challenge”. After the crash searchers were not able to retrieve the bodies because of how the chopper crashed and where it crashed. They say the water is so deep that divers are having trouble reaching the wreckage.
Eyewitnesses said that the air craft was flying very low to the water and that they could hear an explosion before the helicopter vanished out of sight.
Two dead in MTV helicopter crash into reservoir in Argentina https://t.co/NpDUG1uUKZ pic.twitter.com/2iL9HAxiZb
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) December 13, 2015
WHO WAS ON BOARD
This is even more tragic. No one from the cast or crew of the show was on board. MTV reportedly chartered the plane to help film the next Season of “The Challenge” and the only two people on board the helicopter at the time of the crash were the pilot, Carlos Alberto and a technician, Luis Marcelo Barrera Zarlenga.
My first reaction was to let out a sigh of relief as “The Challenge” is one of my favorite shows that nobody watches and it would be super sad to lose a cast member this way. My second was to feel a pang of guilt as two people lost their lives and I felt relieved.
MTV released a statement to the press which I could not officially find. Everyone is stating their statement as:
“MTV issued a statement saying the helicopter was working on The Challenge, a co-production of MTV and Bunim-Murray Productions, and was flying to a shooting location when it went down. MTV said only two people were on the helicopter and neither was a cast or show crew member.”
Did that just say “Only”?
I also went to both MTV’s twitter account and their website and not only do they not mention the names of the two men who died, they don’t mention the incident at all. While we here at TVST specialize in petty and trivial, MTV’s website and twitter feed today feels shockingly trivial in contrast to two men dying and the fact that they can’t take 140 characters and send a simple RIP note and a “prayers and thoughts” to the families of the men who were going to help them shoot a reality TV show.
I know we are not as big as MTV but our thoughts, prayers and our hearts go out to the friends and family of both men. R.I.P Carlos and Luis.
This is the 2nd helicopter accident involving a reality show in Argentina. In March two helicopters working for the show “Dropped” collided and killed 10 people including 3 famous French athletes: sailor Florence Arthaud and Olympian swimmer Camille Muffat and boxer Alexis Vastine.
Source: Ibtimes.com
