Ex-Rust crew member ‘never felt as close to death’ on a set as he did in days before Halyna Hutchins shooting
A former crew member on the film Rust said he “never felt as close to death” on a set as he did in the days before Halyna Hutchins was killed.
Lane Luper was the lead camera operator for the production but resigned the day before his friend and cinematographer Ms Hutchins was shot dead with a live bullet, fired by the film’s star actor, Alec Baldwin.
In his resignation letter to a production manager, seen by Sky News, Mr Luper highlights concerns about the safety and welfare of crew as the reason for him walking away.
In the email, sent to unit production manager Row Walters, Mr Luper noted two accidental discharges of firearms and one accidental discharge of special effects explosives in the days before Ms Hutchins was killed during rehearsal for a scene.
Ms Hutchins was shot dead with a live bullet fired by Alec Baldwin. Pic: Swen Studios
He wrote: “During the filming of gunfights on this job things are often played very fast and loose.
“So far there have been two accidental weapons discharges and one additional SFX explosives that have gone off around the crew between takes.
“To be clear there are NO safety meetings these days. There have been NO explanations as to what to expect for these shots.”
Mr Luper said he is speaking out now because he wants to make clear that Ms Hutchins’s death, in his opinion, was caused by cutting costs and cutting corners.
Baldwin is the only person involved with the production to speak publicly about Ms Hutchins’s death
“Halyna’s death was so preventable by simply following industry safety rules that had been in place for literally decades,” he told Sky News.
“I have never felt more unsafe on set or off set. I’ve never felt I was more in danger of dying on the set or on the drive home, I was so exhausted.”
Mr Luper said that the production team on the independent film put potential profit first, at the expense of safety and welfare of the crew.
“The crew themselves worked very hard but I don’t think they were necessarily respected by the producers,” Mr Luper said.
“This set was unsafe simply because they didn’t have the wherewithal to follow safety rules that we have in this industry.”
There are six producers credited for Rust, which is an independent production. They are Ryan Smith, Nathan Klingher, Ryan Winterstern, Matt DelPiano, Anjul Nigam and Baldwin.
Lane Luper (right) said the death of Ms Hutchins (left) was ‘so preventable’
Hollywood veteran Baldwin is the only one to speak publicly about Ms Hutchins’s death, after he was tracked down by photographers in a mountain town in Vermont, where he owns a holiday home.
He described what he said was a “well oiled” crew on set but Mr Luper disputes that view.
“Would I say the whole thing was well-oiled? Absolutely not,” Mr Luper said.
“We didn’t know what was going on at the time. There were no rehearsals, there were no safety meetings to explain what the next shot was, which is also a requirement of every time you use firearms.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Rust producers said: “Mr Luper’s allegations around budget and safety are patently false, which is not surprising considering his job was to be a camera operator, and he had absolutely nothing to do with it or knowledge of safety protocols or budgets.
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‘She was my friend’, Baldwin says
“As we continue to cooperate with all investigations, we are limited in what we can say.
“However, safety is always the number one priority in our films, and it is truly awful to see someone using this tragedy for personal gain.”
Sky News has also seen a resignation letter sent by another crew member, who quit the film, citing what he said was a disregard for safety around firearms by the film’s assistant director Dave Halls.
“I also feel anxious on set,” he wrote in an email to a production manager.
“I’ve seen first-hand our AD rush to get shots and he skips over important protocols.
“I have tinnitus in my right ear and he often rushes to shoot, I’ve had more than a few occasions where I have been close to the weapons being fired with no regards to my hearing.
“Sometimes he rushes so quickly that props hasn’t even had the chance to bring earplugs and he rolls and the actors fire anyway.
“I feel torn because I like the show and my team but for many reasons I have to walk away for my own health and safety.”
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‘There was complacency on this set’
Sky News has approached Mr Halls and his lawyer for comment but has not yet received a response.
The police investigation into Ms Hutchins’s death is ongoing and one of the central questions they are considering is why exactly live ammunition found its way on to a film set.
Douglas Stewart (right) on set with Francis Fisher
It is bemusing to Douglas Stewart, one of the actors on Rust. He had a positive experience filming.
He was not on set at the time of Ms Hutchins’s death but is now joining calls for real guns to be banned on films.
“For there to be a live round in a gun handed to an actor is unconscionable and unbelievable,” he said.
The police investigation into Ms Hutchins’s death is ongoing
“Everybody in my acting community, we were stunned. We just couldn’t believe it happened and still can’t.”
Those who worked with Ms Hutchins believe she would have become one of Hollywood’s leading cinematographers.
They now hope her legacy can be that of safer sets for cast and crew, which means a tragedy like this cannot happen again.
Crisis-hit Boeing has rushed to defend itself from fresh whistleblower allegations of poor practice, as the airline continues to grapple its latest safety crisis.
A Congressional investigation heard evidence on Wednesday on the safety culture and manufacturing standards at the company – rocked in January by a mid-air scare that saw an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 flight suffer a panel blowout.
One Boeing quality engineer, Sam Salehpour, told members of a Senate subcommittee that Boeing was taking shortcuts to bolster production levels that could lead to jetliners breaking apart.
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He said of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, that has more than 1,000 in use across airlines globally including at British Airways, that excessive force was used to jam together sections of fuselage.
He claimed the extra force could compromise the carbon-composite material used for the plane’s frame.
“They are putting out defective airplanes,” he concluded, while adding that he was threatened when he raised concerns about the issue.
Boeing quality engineer Sam Salehpour testifies during the Senate homeland security subcommittee hearing. Pic: AP
The engineer said he studied Boeing’s own data and concluded “that the company is taking manufacturing shortcuts on the 787 programme that could significantly reduce the airplane’s safety and the life cycle”.
Boeing denied his claims surrounding both the Dreamliner’s structural integrity and that factory workers jumped on sections of fuselage to force them to align.
Two Boeing engineering executives said this week that its testing and inspections regimes have found no signs of fatigue or cracking in the composite panels, saying they were almost impervious to fatigue.
The company’s track record is facing fresh scrutiny amid criticism from regulators and safety officials alike in the wake of the incident aboard the Alaska Airlines plane.
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What’s going on at Boeing?
It has become a trust issue again after the worst period in Boeing’s history when two fatal crashes, both involving MAX 8 aircraft, left 346 people dead in 2018 and 2019.
All 737 MAX 8 planes were grounded for almost two years while a fix to flawed flight control software was implemented.
A separate Senate commerce committee heard on Wednesday from members of an expert panel that found serious flaws in Boeing’s safety culture.
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Boeing CEO: ‘We fly safe planes’
One of the panel members, MIT aeronautics lecturer Javier de Luis, said employees hear Boeing leadership talk about safety, but workers feel pressure to push planes through the factory as fast as they can.
In talking to Boeing workers, he said he heard “there was a very real fear of payback and retribution if you held your ground”.
Pressure on Boeing to focus on safety has included restrictions placed on production, limiting its manufacturing output.
At the same time, it is still facing three separate investigations by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Justice Department and the National Transportation Safety Board relating to the panel blowout.
A management shake-up announced amid the inquiries will see the chief executive depart the company by the year’s end.
Sky News has approached British Airways for comment.
US
Biden suggests his uncle may have been eaten by cannibals during WWII – in apparent swipe at Trump
A judge in Donald Trump’s hush money trial has warned the former president about “intimidating” potential jurors in the case.
Justice Juan Merchan warned he would not tolerate Trump speaking while potential jurors were questioned in court on Tuesday.
He said the former president was audibly uttering something while his lawyers were questioning prospective jury members, and warned: “I will not have any jurors intimidated in the courtroom.”
Donald Trump speaks before entering the courtroom. Pic: AP
The first six jurors were selected to serve on Tuesday afternoon on the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates in the historic trial.
They include a waiter, an oncology nurse, an attorney, an IT consultant, a teacher and a software engineer.
Several others had been excused on Tuesday morning after saying they could not be impartial or because they had other commitments.
Others demurred when asked about their opinions of Trump, including one who said is personal views on the former president “has absolutely no bearing on the case that you’re presenting or defending. That is a separate thing”.
Dozens of potential jurors have yet to be questioned.
The judge also ruled on Tuesday that lawyers are allowed to ask prospective jurors about their social media posts.
That ruling came after Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche told the judge he had found several social media posts he said come from possible jurors that are “very much contrary to the answers they gave”.
Potential jurors have also been asked about where they consume their news, their opinions on Trump and whether they follow politics.
The hush money case is the first of Trump‘s four criminal cases to go to trial and may be the only one that could reach a verdict before the presidential vote in November.
If convicted, Trump – the presumptive Republican presidential nominee – would become the first former US president convicted of a crime.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged effort to keep salacious and, he says, bogus stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign.
Trump has claimed the trial is the result of a politically motivated justice system working to deprive him of another term as president.
Trump during the second day of jury selection. Pic: Reuters
Before entering the courtroom this morning, he stopped briefly to address a TV camera in the hallway, repeating his claim that the judge is biased against him.
“This is a trial that should have never been brought,” Trump said.
Among the potential jurors dismissed on Tuesday was a woman who had previously notified the judge she had a trip planned around Memorial Day.
A man was excused after saying he could not be impartial.
Read more:
All the terms you might hear in Trump’s court cases
The key figures in the hush money case
Another man, who works at an accounting firm, was dismissed after saying he feared his ability to be impartial could be compromised by “unconscious bias” from growing up in Texas and working in finance with people who “intellectually tend to slant Republican”.
Jury selection could take several more days – or even weeks – in New York, which is a heavily Democratic city.
Around a third of the 96 people in the first panel of potential jurors in court on Monday remained after the judge excused some members.
Trump outside Trump Tower. Pic: Reuters
More than half were excused after saying they could not be fair and impartial, and several others were dismissed for other reasons that were not disclosed.
The trial centres on $130,000 (£104,400) in payments that Trump’s company made to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen.
He paid that sum on Trump’s behalf to keep porn actress Stormy Daniels from going public with her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier.
The former president has denied the sexual encounter ever happened.
Read more: Who is Stormy Daniels?
Prosecutors say the payments – which they claim were falsely logged as legal fees – were part of a scheme to bury damaging stories Trump feared could help his opponent in the 2016 race, particularly as his reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.
Trump said the payments, which he acknowledged reimbursing Mr Cohen for, were designed to stop Ms Daniels from going public about the alleged encounter.
The former president previously said it had nothing to do with the 2016 campaign.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
If convicted of falsifying business records, Trump faces up to four years in prison, though there is no guarantee he will get time behind bars.
His three other legal cases, involving allegations of election interference and hoarding classified documents, could lead to lengthy prison sentences.
But those cases are tied up with appeals or other issues that make it increasingly unlikely they will be decided before the election.
If Trump wins in November, he could order a new attorney general to dismiss his federal cases.
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