Bay Area's Oliver Tree Killed When Two Helicopters Smashed Into Each Other Above Rio de Janeiro

Oliver Tree Nickell, the eccentric California-born musician known for his bowl-cut hair, oversized clothing, and genre-blending sound, was killed Sunday morning when two helicopters collided in midair and crashed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was 32.

Tree was among six people who died in the accident, which occurred over the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood in the southwestern part of the city. According to CNN Brasil, which confirmed the victims' identities with Rio de Janeiro's Civil Police, five passengers were aboard one helicopter while the second aircraft carried only its pilot. There were no survivors.

Who Was on Board

The victims, as confirmed by G1 Globo, were:

• Oliver Tree Nickell — passenger
• Lucas Brito Chaves — passenger
• Lucas Vignale — passenger
• Gaspar Prim — passenger
• Alexandre Souza — pilot (first aircraft)
• Charles Marsillac — pilot (second aircraft)

Among the passengers was Gaspar Prim Díaz, known online as "Gaspi," an Argentine content creator with a wide following across Latin America. Gaspi was recognized for his man-on-the-street humor in Buenos Aires and had gained significant international exposure after participating in "La Velada del Año V," a major creator boxing event organized by Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos at Estadio La Cartuja in Seville in 2025. According to G1 Globo, the pilot of the second helicopter, Charles Marsillac, was described by someone close to him as highly experienced.

What Happened

Two helicopters — registered as PP-MAC and PR-DJJ — collided in the air before plunging to the ground in Recreio dos Bandeirantes, a neighborhood along the Barra da Tijuca coastline. Metrópoles reported that one of the aircraft had been headed to Angra dos Reis, a resort town on the Costa Verde, while the second was on a routine refueling run.

The collision sent wreckage flying across a wide area, with pieces of the aircraft scattered hundreds of meters from the impact zone, according to Metrópoles. One helicopter came down on Avenida das Américas; the other landed in the lot of an electric vehicle depot, where it ignited roughly 20 cars. CNN Brasil reported that Brazilian Air Force investigators (CENIPA) were dispatched to the scene to begin collecting data and preserving evidence, while Brazil's civil aviation authority (ANAC) said it was assessing the aircraft and pilots' credentials. The cause of the collision remains under investigation.

Oliver Tree: A California Kid Who Made It Big

Tree was born on June 29, 1993, in Santa Cruz, California — a coastal surf town about 75 miles south of San Francisco. He started taking piano lessons at age three, was writing songs by four, and by his own account had a full album written by age six. He went on to study business at San Francisco State University before transferring to study music technology at the California Institute of the Arts in Southern California.

His professional career began quietly — playing in a ska band in middle school, releasing dubstep tracks online in the early 2010s, performing at San Francisco music festivals. He signed with the London-based R&S Records as a teenager and released a debut EP, Demons, which drew modest attention after Radiohead's Thom Yorke praised his cover of "Karma Police."

The real turning point came in 2016–17, when his song "When I'm Down" went viral, racking up tens of millions of views and landing him a deal with Atlantic Records. His 2020 debut album, Ugly Is Beautiful, introduced his fully-formed persona to a mainstream audience — a figure described as equal parts musician and living meme, with a signature look (the bowl cut, the tracksuit, the oversized everything) as recognizable as the music itself.

"Miss You," released in 2022 and included on his second album Cowboy Tears, became one of his most-streamed tracks globally, with his catalog surpassing 700 million plays on Spotify, where he had accumulated more than 11 million monthly listeners.

Mid-Tour at the Time of Death

Tree was in Rio de Janeiro as part of an active world tour. He had performed in São Paulo on June 6 and was set to kick off a European leg with a show in Lisbon, Portugal, on July 13. His final Instagram post — a story from a recording studio, shared the night before the crash on Saturday, June 13 — showed him in the company of other musicians.

He had nearly 20 million followers across social media platforms at the time of his death.