Alan D. Purwin (28 August 1961–11 September 2015; age 54) was a helicopter pilot, stunt pilot, aerial coordinator and world-renowned aviator who worked as helicopter pilot on Star Trek. Born in Los Angeles, California, Purwin was the founder and executive of the company Helinet Aviation Services located in Van Nuys, California.
Purwin also built up the companies Cineflex, VideoFort, and Team5. In 2005, he was called to provide support to the US Coast Guard and organized a team which he flew out to New Orleans. His team supplied the first disaster images from the hurricane Katrina to the Coast Guard and Homeland Security.
For over three decades he worked as aerial coordinator, stunt pilot, or helicopter pilot on film and television productions including Airwolf (1984-1987), Jurassic Park (1993) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Air Force One (1997), Armageddon (1998), Charlie's Angels (2000), Transformers (2007) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Fast & Furious (2009, directed by Justin Lin), Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), Furious 7 (2015), Jurassic World (2015), and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).
In 2002, Purwin received a Taurus World Stunt Award nomination in the category Best Aerial Work for his contribution to Pearl Harbor. In 2012, he was part of the stunt cast of the sequel Transformers: Dark of the Moon which received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination in the category Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture.
Purwin died in a plane crash near Medellin, Colombia after wrapping filming on the Universal Pictures crime thriller American Made (formerly called Mena) on 11 September 2015. [1] [2] The crash was attributed to bad weather.
External links[]
- Helinet.com – official site
- Alan Purwin at Wikipedia
- Alan D. Purwin at the Internet Movie Database