A small helicopter made a hard landing just outside Reid-Hillview Airport in East San José today, injuring the two people on board and briefly tangling traffic on a busy stretch of Tully Road. Firefighters and paramedics rushed in, quickly confirming there was no fire as they began treatment and shut down lanes in the area.
San José Fire Department On Scene
According to the San José Fire Department, crews were dispatched at 11:39 AM after a call and arrived to find a small helicopter down with two occupants. One person was reported to have moderate injuries, the other minor injuries. Fire officials said there was no fire at the site, and that emergency crews were handling traffic disruptions on eastbound Tully Road at Eastridge Lane while they treated the patients and secured the crash scene.
#SJFD firefighters are responding to a small helicopter crash near Reid-Hillview Airport. Two individuals on board, one with moderate injuries, one minor injuries. No fire. Traffic impacted on EB Tully Rd at Eastridge Ln. Please avoid the area.
— San José Fire Dept. (@SJFD) June 29, 2026
TOC: 11:39am pic.twitter.com/pURtMsQSJh
Where This Happened
The hard landing occurred just south of Reid-Hillview Airport, the county-operated general aviation field in East San José. The County of Santa Clara lists Reid-Hillview at 2500 Cunningham Avenue and notes that it mainly serves private pilots, flight training and other small-aircraft activity. With that kind of traffic overhead, any incident near the field can quickly spill over onto nearby streets and affect businesses in the surrounding Eastridge neighborhood.
Traffic, Investigations And Next Steps
Officials asked drivers to steer clear of eastbound Tully Road at Eastridge Lane while fire and medical crews worked the scene and traffic was redirected around the response. It was not immediately known whether the Federal Aviation Administration or the National Transportation Safety Board had started a formal investigation. The NTSB is the federal agency responsible for investigating civil aviation accidents in the United States, and local authorities typically share more details, including the type of aircraft involved and information about the operator, after an initial on-scene review.
What We Do Not Yet Know
As of this afternoon, officials had not released the names of the two people aboard the helicopter, nor any specifics about who operates the aircraft or what route it was flying before the crash. This story will be updated as local and federal investigators release more information about what caused the helicopter to go down and how the injured individuals are doing.
