Two helicopters collided in mid-air over Rio de Janeiro on Sunday morning, killing all six people on board. The dead included American alternative musician Oliver Tree, 32, and Argentine content creator Gaspar Prim, known online as Gaspi, 23. The collision occurred at around 09:00 local time above Recreio dos Bandeirantes, a suburb in the western part of the city, before the aircraft plummeted into an urban area below.
According to Rio de Janeiro's fire department, one of the helicopters — a Bell 206B registered as PP-MAC, carrying five people — came down on a lot rented by BYD, the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, setting fire to approximately 20 cars parked on the site. The second helicopter, registered PR-DJJ and carrying only its pilot, crashed roughly 100 metres away. In total, around 45 firefighters and 15 vehicles were deployed; the blaze was brought under control within an hour, though fire services spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Fábio Contreiras warned that lithium-ion batteries in the electric vehicles released highly toxic gases and required three to four times the water needed to extinguish a conventional car fire. Debris was scattered hundreds of metres from both impact sites, striking nearby buildings. Contreiras noted that the densely populated surroundings meant the death toll could have been far higher had the aircraft not come down on the car park.
Civil police identified the victims as Tree, Brazilian music producer Lucas Brito Chaves, Argentine music-video director Lucas Vignale, Gaspi, and the two pilots, Alexandre Souza and Charles Marsillac. Formal identification remained pending forensic confirmation, as the bodies were badly burned. Brazil's Air Force confirmed that investigators from the Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Centre (CENIPA) had been deployed to open a formal inquiry, and the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) was also assessing the aircraft and the pilots' credentials. The cause of the collision has not yet been established.
Oliver Tree — born Oliver Tree Nickell on 29 June 1993 in Santa Cruz, California — was widely recognised for his bowl haircut, oversized clothing, and genre-blending alt-pop sound. He had more than 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify, and his debut album Ugly Is Beautiful topped two Billboard charts. His hits included Life Goes On, Miss You, and Alien Boy; the latter track, recorded with German producer Robin Schulz, peaked at number three in the UK singles chart and earned a Brit Award nomination in 2024. Tree had been in Brazil as part of a world tour spanning more than 70 shows across 30 countries, having performed in São Paulo on 6 June. His next scheduled date was in Lisbon on 1 July. Gaspi, 23, had built a following of around 2.8 million YouTube subscribers through street interviews and prank-style comedy, and had gained wider international exposure after participating in the creator boxing event La Velada del Año V, organised by Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos in 2025.
Helicopter traffic is heavy over Rio de Janeiro, a city of around seven million people whose airspace includes busy corridors over Guanabara Bay. According to CENIPA statistics, Sunday's crash was the latest in a series of 84 aircraft accidents recorded in Brazil so far in 2026. Investigators said they would need to review recordings of the incident before any conclusions about the cause could be drawn.