A catastrophic mid-air collision between two helicopters over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sunday has killed all six people on board, among them American alternative pop artist and viral internet personality Oliver Tree, a police source confirmed to AFP.
The collision took place above Recreio dos Bandeirantes, a residential western suburb of the city, before both aircraft crashed into the parking lot of a local electric car dealership. The impact and subsequent fire ignited roughly 20 parked vehicles on the site, Rio fire department officials confirmed. The wreckage left all victims so severely burned that formal positive identification has not yet been completed, despite law enforcement having access to both helicopters’ passenger and crew manifests.
Five people, including Tree, were aboard the first helicopter, while the second aircraft only carried its single pilot, who also died in the crash. Passengers alongside Tree included a Brazilian music producer, an Argentine video director, and prominent Argentine YouTuber Gaspar Prim, known to his online audience as Gaspi.
At 32 years old, Tree built a massive global following through his eccentric brand of work, which blends alternative pop music, performance art, internet pranks, trolling, and high-stakes viral stunts. Recognizable by his signature bowl cut and meme-driven public persona, Tree rose to fame with hit tracks including *Life Goes On*, *Miss You*, and *Alien Boy*. He currently boasts more than 11 million monthly listeners on major streaming platform Spotify, with his most popular tracks racking up more than 700 million combined plays globally.
Tree was in the middle of a world tour spanning more than 30 countries, having performed a sold-out show in São Paulo on June 6. In the days leading up to the crash, his official Instagram account featured multiple clips and posts showing the artist in Brazil. His next scheduled performance was set to take place in Lisbon, Portugal on July 1. Even after news of the crash broke, many of Tree’s fans took to social media to question whether the death reports were just another of his elaborate, signature pranks, a testament to his well-known history of viral stunts.
Local officials confirmed the tragedy early on, with Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere noting that multiple foreign nationals were aboard one of the aircraft, though he declined to share additional identifying details before official confirmation.
Witnesses described the chaos of the crash as it unfolded. Thamires Santos, a 27-year-old Burger King employee working near the crash site, told reporters he was on shift when he heard “a really loud explosion. The shop actually shook.” In the moments after the collision, he saw debris from the helicopters “flying in all directions.”
As of Sunday evening, investigators have not yet determined the root cause of the mid-air collision, said fire service spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Fabio Contreiras, speaking to CNN Brasil from the crash site. “Parts of the aircraft are scattered hundreds of meters away, so the information we have is still very preliminary,” Contreiras explained. “We really need to get the recordings and videos from witnesses and local security cameras to understand exactly what happened.”
Contreiras confirmed recovery efforts found the first helicopter, with five victims inside, engulfed in flames among the parked electric vehicles. The second helicopter, holding the deceased pilot, was found roughly 100 meters from the primary crash site. Remarkably, Contreiras noted, the outcome could have been far worse given the density of surrounding residential homes. “Given the surrounding residences, the accident could have been far more tragic,” he said.
Responders faced unique challenges extinguishing the blaze due to the large number of electric vehicles ignited in the crash, Contreiras added, as the lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars create extra hazards for fire crews. “When this type of battery catches fire, it releases highly toxic gases and intensifies both the temperature and the severity of the blaze. Extinguishing a fire in one of these vehicles requires three to four times the amount of water needed for a fire in a standard car.”
Small aircraft crashes are an ongoing systemic issue in Brazil, a continental nation that ranks as the world’s fifth largest by total land area, with an aging fleet of small private and commercial aircraft. Just one month prior, a small passenger plane crashed into a residential building in the southeastern Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, killing both the pilot and co-pilot on board. According to the latest data from Brazil’s Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (CENIPA), 84 aircraft accidents have been recorded across the country in 2026 prior to this weekend’s collision, resulting in 25 fatalities nationwide.
