Island Express Helicopters

Island Express Helicopters has been operating tours, charters and exclusive Santa Catalina Island trips since 1982. The company services all of southern California, with exclusive-use helicopters at the Queen Mary in Long Beach and the Catalina Cruise terminal in San Pedro. In April 2013 a new terminal opened at the Orange County Airport. Island Express flies three turbine-powered six-passenger helicopters. Its maintenance facility is at Long Beach Airport.

On November 30, 1985, there was a mid-air collision at their terminal in San Pedro of their Bell 206-L Jet Ranger in which there was one fatality, Hossein Habibi (28), and 11 survivors.

In the News~

December 2, 1985 [LAT]: “ Stark Tragedy of helicopter crash ends a joyous outing. It was to be like a delayed honeymoon. But it ended in tragedy with the recent bridegroom, Hossein Habibi, 28, of Glendale, killed and 11 others injured in a rare mid-air collision of two commuter helicopters maneuvering to land at the Catalina Air and Sea Terminal in San Pedro. "They were very much acting like newlyweds," said Russell Clendenen, 34, of Pitman, N.J., in recounting the last moments of the Saturday afternoon crash at the helipad located under the Vincent Thomas suspension bridge. Habibi, an Iranian immigrant who worked as a manager at a McDonald's restaurant, had been sitting in a Bell "LongRanger" helicopter owned by Helitrans of San Pedro, that was about to land after a daylong excursion to Santa Catalina Island. Next to him was his wife of three months, Stacy, 22, whom he had met last year while both were working at Yellowstone National Park.”