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A 19-year-old remote-control helicopter enthusiast was killed on Thursday after his own chopper flew into his head and partially decapitated him, reports The New York Times.
Roman Pirozek Jr. of New York was flying his mini-chopper at a Brooklyn park when a stunt-gone-wrong sent the seven-foot model crashing into his head, slicing off a piece of his skull and slashing his throat.
Pirozek was the vice president of a local hobby club and an avid flyer of the machines who specialized in the most extreme form of flying. He posted several videos of himself performing incredible tricks with the helicopters on Youtube. The $1,500 helicopter that struck him in the head has a blade span of 62 inches, with a rotor that spins at more than 2,000 rpm.
The teen’s father, Roman Pirozek Sr, who introduced his son to the hobby, was with him when the accident happened around 3:30 p.m. in a grassy area of Calvert Vaux Park. He was dead by the time police arrived at the scene.
“A lot of people think they are toys, but these really aren’t toys,” said fellow remote-control helicopter enthusiast Butch Wellbeck. “These are high-performance models and they can be very dangerous.”