On this day in 1982, Vic Morrow and two child actors, (below) Renee Shinn
Chen and Myca Dinh Le, are killed in an accident involving a helicopter
during filming on the California set of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Morrow,
age 53, and the children, ages six and seven, were shooting a Vietnam War
battle scene in which they were supposed to be running from a pursuing
helicopter. Special-effects explosions on the set caused the pilot of the low-
flying craft to lose control and crash into the three victims. The accident
took place on the film’s last scheduled day of shooting.

Twilight Zone co-director John Landis (Blues Brothers, Trading Places,
National Lampoon’s Animal House) and four other men working on the
film, including the special-effects coordinator and the helicopter pilot,
were charged with involuntary manslaughter. Following an emotional
10-month trial, a jury acquitted all five defendants in 1987.

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Twilight Zone: The Movie, released in the summer of 1983,
received mixed reviews.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Titanic survivor’s walking stick, (above) with an
electric light she used to signal for help from a lifeboat, sold for $62,500 at
an auction of maritime items.

Guernsey’s held the auction at the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, Rhode Island, on Friday and Saturday. The top bid on Ella White’s
cane was $50,000, plus the surcharge added by the auction house.

Guernsey’s President Alan Ettinger had expected it to sell for far more, with
a pre-auction estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. He described it as one of the
most extraordinary items to have survived the sinking.

The walking stick was consigned to Guernsey’s by the Williams family in
Milford, Connecticut.

Guernsey President Alan Ettinger.

The RMS Titanic sank in the early morning of 15 April 1912 after
striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. The ship was 
four days into the her maiden voyage from Southampton to
New York City. The largest ocean liner in service at the time,
Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board.