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A devastating tragedy unfolded on a major Hollywood film set, claiming the lives of two children and resulting in the decapitation of star Vic Morrow.

The Twilight Zone was an adaptation of a much-loved 1960s television series, co-produced and co-directed by Hollywood icon Steven Spielberg, the mastermind behind ET, Jaws, Jurassic Park and Gremlins.

The film comprised several distinct segments overseen by various directors, including Spielberg, John Landis, Joe Dante and George Miller.

Filmed in 1982, this Twilight Zone adaptation was due to feature Vic Morrow, a celebrated 1970s star who had risen to prominence through the 1960s series Combat!

However, Morrow would never live to see the production completed.

The actor died aged 53 alongside child actors seven-year-old Myca Dinh Le and six-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen, during a helicopter stunt that went catastrophically wrong, according to the New York Times.

It was John Landis, not Spielberg, who was directing the segment in question, reports the Daily Star.

On July 23 1982, at 2.20am, disaster struck during the filming of Landis's 'Time Out' storyline.

Shooting on location at Indian Dunes, California, the helicopter involved came crashing down.

The sequence was filmed at night, with its setting intended to replicate wartime Vietnam.

Morrow, who was playing a racist character named Bill Connor, was supposed to carry the two children from an abandoned village across a river during a US army pursuit scene, with the helicopter hovering above.

The New York Times described the production as "poorly planned" and "barely rehearsed", resulting in one of the scene's intended explosions damaging the helicopter's rotor blades, causing the pilot to lose control.

The helicopter subsequently plunged from the sky into the river below, decapitating Morrow and Le while crushing Chen to death.

In a deeply shocking turn of events, the tragedy unfolded before the very eyes of the children's parents, who were present on set at the time.

The six individuals aboard the helicopter during the crash sustained only minor injuries when it came down near the Six Flags Magic Mountain Amusement Park.

In the aftermath of the incident, both civil and criminal legal proceedings were launched against those overseeing the shoot, including Landis himself.

Despite this, the director and four other defendants were acquitted of involuntary manslaughter following a nine-month trial.

Sixteen prominent directors - among them Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, John Huston, George Lucas, Sidney Lumet and Billy Wilder - put their names to an open letter of support for the filmmaker.

Spielberg, however, was notably absent from the signatories, and in April 1983 he told the Los Angeles Times: "No movie is worth dying for. I think people are standing up much more now than ever before to producers and directors who ask too much. If something isn't safe, it's the right and responsibility of every actor or crew member to yell 'Cut!'"

The families of Le and Chen pursued legal action, ultimately settling out of court for an undisclosed sum.

In October 1984, the National Transportation Safety Board published its findings on the incident, concluding that the "probable cause of the accident was the detonation of debris-laden high-temperature special effects explosions too near a low-flying helicopter leading to foreign object damage to one rotor blade and delamination due to heat to the other rotor blade, the separation of the helicopter's tail rotor assembly, and the uncontrolled descent of the helicopter.

"The proximity of the helicopter (around 25 feet off the ground) to the special effects explosions was due to the failure to establish direct communications and coordination between the pilot, who was in command of the helicopter operation, and the film director, who was in charge of the filming operation."

It was further established that the very presence of the children on set had been unlawful, as child labour regulations expressly forbade children from working at such a late hour, let alone being placed in such close proximity to explosions or a helicopter.

Notwithstanding the tragedy, film production continued, and the picture remains available to view to this day. Twilight Zone: The Movie was released in June 1983.