Singer and Santa Cruz native Oliver Tree was among six dead after two helicopters collided over Rio de Janeiro on Sunday morning and crashed in the Brazilian city’s western zone.
Police said that Tree, 32, was on the list of passengers given to aviation authorities, but they had not been able to identify the bodies of those killed in the crash.
Rio de Janeiro’s military fire department said one of the helicopters crashed on the parking lot of a car dealership, where several electric vehicles were parked, igniting a fire that was extinguished.
Officials said an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the collision.
Tree performed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on June 4, and published a video on his Instagram on Saturday in which he is playing soccer in a Brazilian neighborhood.
Born Oliver Nickell, Oliver Tree was a Harbor High School grad and musical wunderkind who got the ear of a U.K. record label at the age of 18 and had been creating some truly one-of-a-kind music and visuals ever since, Lookout’s Wallace Baine wrote ahead of a homecoming show at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in 2022. Tree was scheduled to play the Quarry Amphitheater at UC Santa Cruz on Aug. 21, part of the world tour that had brought him to South America.
Argentine streaming channel Blender said that content creator Gaspar Prim Díaz — also known as Gaspi — was in one of the helicopters.
Gaspi had more than 2.8 million followers on YouTube and was 23.
“Thanks for your art, your magic and your sensibility, every one of us will miss you,” Blender said on its X account.
Fernandes de Freitas, a tire repair worker, said he saw one of the helicopters in flames following the midair collision, and noticed that one of the passengers jumped out of the other aircraft, before it hit the ground.
“It was terrifying, absolutely horrifying,” De Freitas said.
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