The pilot who crashed a helicopter in Huntington Beach near a waterfront hotel on Saturday, injuring five people including himself, was known for leaning into thrills during some of his flights, according to a review of his social media.

Videos shared on pilot Eric Nixon’s Instagram page showed several low-altitude maneuvers, including some that appear to come very close to vehicles and buildings. In one that appeared to promote Saturday’s helicopter landing party for the Cars ’n Copters on the Coast event in the Orange County city, one of Nixon’s choppers swooped in close to the rooftop lounge at Hilton’s Waterfront Beach Resort — near where he later crashed.

Five people were injured when Nixon’s Bell helicopter — the type made popular by the 1980s television drama “Airwolf” — crashed in Huntington Beach Saturday afternoon as the city readied for the car and helicopter show.

Frightening videos captured the crash, showing the helicopter spinning out of control before crashing onto palm trees and the stairwell of a pedestrian bridge connecting a beach parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway to the Hyatt Regency resort.

Some videos appeared to show the helicopter’s tail rotor fly off moments before the crash in front of hundreds of spectators. People can be heard in the video screaming and are seen scrambling to evade debris.

Two people were pulled from the aircraft, and three people, including a child, were injured on the ground, police said.

The helicopter was being piloted by owner Nixon, who was bringing the 1980 Bell 222 to appear in the annual Cars ’n Copters show Sunday featuring exotic cars along with aircraft from private owners, law enforcement and the military. Helicopters flew in Saturday for a “landing party” event.

Despite the crash, the show went on Sunday, appearing to draw hundreds to the flashy car and helicopter event. Organizers posted online that they were “sending our prayers out to all involved in the unfortunate incident.”

Nixon’s father-in-law, Jerry Miller, told the Orange County Register on Saturday night that Nixon was “in the hospital with some broken ribs, crushed vertebrae and several bruises.”

In addition to Nixon and another person in the helicopter with him, a child and two adults were injured on the ground. All five were hospitalized, but no official information was released about their injuries as of early Sunday afternoon.

Nixon’s Instagram account said he and his passenger were safe after the crash.

A GoFundMe account, which could not be independently verified, identified the youngest victim and said the boy was in a hospital with a collapsed lung and brain bleed.

In images obtained by KTLA, bystanders can be seen pulling a child from beneath the wreckage and whisking the boy away. The crash was “like something in a nightmare,” witness Kurt Johnston told KTLA.

One pilot told NBC 4 that Nixon made a quick decision on Saturday.

“He chose to sacrifice the helicopter and put it on top of the palm trees, therefore avoiding cars and people that were there,” Esteban Jimenez said.

Nixon’s Bell 222 departed from Redlands Municipal Airport, according to the Flight Safety Foundation.

A cosmetically modified Bell 222 was the centerpiece of “Airwolf,” which revolved around a high-technology attack helicopter, code-named Airwolf, and its crew.

The crash has been reported to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, police said.

Six months after the Palisades fire roared down Pacific Coast Highway, the Country Kitchen in Malibu is open for business, but many customers have yet to return.

The no-frills eatery features a few outdoor tables and ocean views, nestled in a narrow parking lot alongside a liquor store and gift shop. The restaurant, which opened in 1972, is literally a hole in the wall. It serves breakfast burritos all day and burgers out of a window.

It wasn’t destroyed by the fires but had extensive smoke damage. It was cut off from most of its customers for close to five months, waiting for the highway to reopen. Business is a lot better than it was a couple of months ago, but still well below what the restaurant would usually see this time of year.

“Things are better, but if you compare it to last year, it’s still probably 25% less business,” said Joel Ruiz, who has worked at the Country Kitchen for 40 years.

Up and down the coast, businesses that survived the flames are still hoping for a return to normalcy. As customers slowly return to a changed landscape, the small businesses that dot Pacific Coast Highway wonder how long it will take to get back to business as usual.

PCH was closed to nonresidents for five months following the Palisades fire, isolating the once-bustling businesses that catered to beachgoers and tourists.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Palisades fire charred more than 23,000 acres and destroyed more than 6,000 structures. The blaze burned the vast majority of homes along the ocean from Topanga Canyon to Las Flores Canyon.

Nearly 800 structures were lost in Malibu, including the Reel Inn, a seafood restaurant just a few miles down the road from the Country Kitchen. Other popular restaurants including Duke’s Malibu are still closed due to damage. Caffe Luxxe near Carbon Beach was closed for months before reopening in May.

It should be peak summer season for Zuma Jay’s, which has been selling boards and wax to surfers since 1975. Instead, sales are about a third less than normal.

“It’s better, but not like it was last year at the same time,” Jefferson Wagner said. He couldn’t pay his four employees for months.

Some estimates put the total cost of the Los Angeles area wildfires at $250 billion. Gaps or delays in insurance coverage have kept many from cleaning or rebuilding their property at the pace they hoped.

“We’re still trying to get back to what we had before,” said Malibu City Councilmember Doug Stewart, who was serving as mayor during the Palisades fire. “The store owners and restaurants are telling me that things have picked up considerably, but they’re still not back to what they’d expect to see for the summer.”

Stewart said most businesses in the community were spared from being burned to the ground but are still struggling to reopen and stay viable.

“It’s less of a rebuilding issue and more of a question of making sure that they’ve been able to survive,” he said.

The businesses neighboring the Country Kitchen in the strip mall along PCH have all had to adapt to the aftermath of the fire. Even the view from the parking lot is different, with vast stretches of the ocean now visible where homes had previously stood.

The scuba shop Malibu Divers officially reopened May 23, the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom reopened PCH. Co-owner Carter Crary came into the shop every day while the road was still closed, serving an occasional customer. Business was down about 90% for more than four months.

“There’s been a definite change since the highway reopened,” he said. “We are not yet where we should be for this time of year, but we’re on a trajectory that has us heading in the right direction.”

Malibu Divers doesn’t have business interruption insurance but was able to offset some of the losses caused by the fire with a Small Business Assn. emergency loan. Crary estimated his business has lost out on $150,000 in revenue since January. The shop earns between $500,000 and $1 million in a normal year.

Crary employs around 12 staff members, but he’s currently not able to pay or bring in his in-store employees. The dive shop, which offers rental gear and scuba lessons, opened in 1969 and is usually busiest between May and September.

Business has been further impacted because people aren’t diving in the areas where the Palisades fire burned. Most divers are going north for cleaner waters, Crary said.

Malibu’s scenic beaches, now contaminated with heavy metals and debris from the wildfire, usually attract customers to Roxanne Jensen’s souvenir shop, Blue Malibu, located a few doors down from Malibu Divers.

“It’s been very slow because people don’t know we’re open,” Jensen said. “We have to be patient. As long as the ocean is there, the customers will come back.”

Jensen closed her store for five months after the fire destroyed the merchandise on display and drove away tourists. July and August are typically big months for sales, said Jensen, who runs the shop with her husband.

Jensen’s landlord is allowing her to pay half her usual rent, but even that is hard to come up with, she said. She opened her shop 10 years ago and sells sweatshirts, swimwear and gifts.

Jensen said she has faith the Malibu community will rebound, like it has several times in the past after disastrous wildfires and landslides. She stood among her merchandise on a recent quiet Wednesday and was cautiously hopeful.

“Maybe next summer will be normal,” she said.

Though the Country Kitchen employees had to stay home with no pay for months, they are back now, serving chili cheese fries, omelets and buffalo burgers.

“People love this place,” Ruiz said, standing in front of spot where he has worked most of his life. “We had customers calling who wanted to come in, but for a long time they weren’t able to.”

Two months after twin fires destroyed large swaths of two Southern California communities, many of the businesses left behind are struggling to revive sales in the face of displaced customers, road closures and a massive rebuilding effort that is projected to drag on for years.

The secondary crisis has hit hard in Malibu because of the ongoing closure of Pacific Coast Highway to most vehicle traffic — isolating the beachside community from customers coming from the Westside.

Some businesses have closed and others say they are struggling to stay open. Sales for some restaurants and shops have plummeted to less than half what they were before the Palisades fire roared through the east end of the city in early January.

Leaders in the city government and business community have urged the state transportation agency, Caltrans, to expand access to PCH as soon as possible. But with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers only about to begin clearing hundreds of destroyed homes along the highway, the crucial coastal route seems likely to remain as a choke point for months and possibly years.

In the meantime, Malibu’s government and business leaders are reminding outsiders that most of the town did not burn and that restaurants and shops are waiting for customers to return.

“The main thing we want people to know is, Malibu is open for business,” said Mayor Doug Stewart. “Yes, it’s hard to come in from the east [Santa Monica side] but there are lots of other ways to get here. Malibu is not destroyed. Our retail and restaurants are open for everyone.”

Wildfires and floods have beset the city of about 10,000 with striking regularity. But in recent years the onslaught has been particularly challenging. First came the 2018 Woolsey fire, which destroyed 465 homes, with fewer than 40% rebuilt by this year.

Landslides closed PCH last year. The Franklin fire gutted 20 structures in central Malibu, also shutting down power for days. Then came January’s Palisades fire, which burned the vast majority of homes along the ocean from Topanga Canyon to Las Flores Canyon, just a part of the 798 total structures lost in Malibu, according to the Army Corps.

“If the businesses here were a boxer, at that point they might have called it a TKO [technical knockout],” Stewart said. “This has hit them really hard and they are struggling.”

Mitch Taylor, longtime manager of the Becker surf shop in central Malibu, agreed: “It’s a guarantee here in Malibu that something nasty happens every five to 10 years. But this isn’t just nasty, it’s devastating.”

Epitomizing the challenges for local business is John’s Garden, a beloved sandwich, salad and soup shop in the Malibu Country Mart. Though it survived the fire, the restaurant has seen its receipts drop by more than half, with many of its non-local customers unable to pass PCH checkpoints.

Even workers who have passes to get through the checkpoints find the drive painfully slow, with the highway reduced to one lane in each direction and the speed limit cut to 25 mph as work vehicles jam the roadway.

Many workers are forced to take the longer route, from the 101 Freeway to Las Virgenes/Malibu Canyon Road. The change has lengthened the one-way commute for some from perhaps 40 minutes to two hours, sometimes more.

When they arrive at work in the Country Mart, its to a quaint shopping center hushed by the absence of visitors. On a bright, windy day Thursday, a patio that can be jammed with diners sat mostly empty.

Boyan Kinov, a Bulgarian immigrant who bought John’s Garden a dozen years ago, said he is straining to stay afloat. Already, a neighboring boutique and a gym have closed. Other high-end retailers are open shorter hours. He worries that, if other businesses fail, it could further reduce foot traffic at the Cross Creek Road shopping center.

Kinov said his insurer is balking at paying on a portion of his policy for receipts lost to business interruption, saying it is only responsible for the days the business actually shut its doors, not deficits linked to the restricted highway access.

“We’re one of the oldest businesses in Malibu. We celebrate our 50-year anniversary in July,” Kinov said. “We’re like a staple, an institution. And we have zero support from any kind of agencies or the government.

“I feel like defeat, you know? It’s unsustainable the way it is. It’s very sad, and even unbelievable, to have to consider closing the doors.”

Others local mainstays, like Duke’s Malibu, Tramonto Bistro and Caffe Luxxe on PCH near Carbon Beach, have not yet reopened. Those businesses are even harder to reach, hemmed in by checkpoints on both the east and west.

Like other businesses in Malibu, John’s Garden reminds customers from outside that they can still reach the city. The highway up the coast from the Country Mart remains open and traffic can also come over Kanan Dume Road and Malibu Canyon from the Valley.

But the bulk of visitors have always come from “town” — Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica and points beyond — making greater access to PCH critical.

At Paradise Cove Beach Cafe, where business is down more than 60%, owner Bob Morris called on political leaders up to the governor to focus on a quicker expansion of access to the highway, also known as State Route 1.

Morris said leaders should consider offering the kind of incentive given to the freeway contractor who rebuilt the Santa Monica Freeway after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. That builder earned a $14.5-million bonus for restoring a collapsed section of the freeway 74 days ahead of schedule.

Glen Gerson, owner of Calamigos Beach Club restaurant on PCH, suggested Caltrans use reversible dividers on the highway to provide two lanes of traffic in the predominant commuting direction, and one lane in the other direction.

“Nobody needs to get hurt. We have to do it safely,” Morris said. “But we’ve got to get this highway open, and in the government somebody’s got to push to make it happen.”

The highway through most of Malibu consists of a total of five lanes — two for traffic in each direction and a center lane for left turns. There is also a lane on each side for parking along most of both sides of PCH.

Now orange traffic cones limit vehicles to one lane in each direction. And the highway will soon be crowded with trucks hauling debris to be removed by the Army Corps of Engineers and private contractors.

In the whole Palisades fire burn zone, it’s estimated it will take 90,000 truckloads to finish the job. The Corps has said the work will be complete in both the Palisades and Altadena burn areas “within a year,” without giving more precise estimates for PCH and other sections of the work.

Caltrans spokesperson Nathan Bass said the agency is moving “toward opening as soon as we possibly can,” adding that recovery workers remain busy in the area and that they must “work through” their tasks, including removal of hazards, before opening PCH for people other than first responders, healthcare workers, residents, contractors and essential employees.

Locals and visitors who mostly now come from up the coast or from the San Fernando Valley are trying to fill in for the missing customers.

The city of Malibu is buying lunch at various local restaurants, every day, for roughly 100 city employees, Stewart said. On March 15, Morris plans to host a “Day of Hope” at the Paradise Cove restaurant, with free meals for first responders and those affected by the fire.

Service resumed recently on the Metro bus line traveling from Santa Monica to Trancas Canyon Road, near the far western end of the city. Some locals have wondered whether a ferry service could be launched, to deliver day trippers from Santa Monica Pier to Malibu Pier — an alternative that the city tried during a major landslide decades ago.

Kinov and other Malibu businesspeople said their spirits have been lifted by customers who made a special effort to buy extra meals or gifts.

Lisa Barron, who lost her home above La Costa Beach, said she came to John’s Garden for a sandwich to help bolster a place she has come to love.

“We don’t want what’s still surviving to die before the rest of us can rebuild and get back,” said Barron, a former business professor at UC Irvine. “With these businesses and the people who are still living here, we’ve got to keep them alive and healthy and safe so the community doesn’t go downhill.”

With the same thought in mind, Vanessa Abbott, a film editor who lives in Calabasas, popped over the hill Thursday for lunch. “Everything is still here, and I want to do my part to support it,” Abbott said, “one sandwich at a time.”

Lynn Schulz, general manager of Marmalade Cafe in the Country Mart, said the feeling of support operates in both directions.

“We feel our role in the community, even during this tragedy, is to be here, to be open, to be cranking out meals, or to do catering, whatever anyone needs,” Schulz said. “We’re doing everything we can to be here and be part of the community.”