Johnson were also killed in the crash. He was a good friend of Clint Eastwood, who had been skiing with Wells that weekend. Eastwood left in his own helicopter just an hour before Wells' departure. Because of poor weather in the area, the chartered Bell 206 helicopter carrying Wells had landed at a remote location about two and a half hours prior to the crash. While waiting for improved weather conditions, snow fell on the helicopter. During the subsequent takeoff and ascent, the engine lost power and the aircraft crashed on a 30-degree slope, followed by a rollover, during an attempted emergency landing. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was "the ingestion of foreign material (snow) in the engine, which resulted in a flameout (loss of engine power)." Of the five persons on board, four were killed. The sole survivor was Mike Hoover. Wells was buried at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery. At the funeral, Eastwood sang a tribute of The Beatles' "Hey Jude", which Wells liked to sing on the slopes. The Lion King, which came out the summer after Wells' death, includes a dedication right before the Walt Disney Pictures logo appears (though the 2003 Platinum Edition, the 2011 Diamond Edition and the 2017 Signature Edition have the dedication at the end of the credits). The building housing the Walt Disney Archives at Walt Disney Studios was also named in Wells' honor. References Sources External links 1932 births 1994 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople People from Coronado, California American Rhodes Scholars Stanford Law School alumni American film studio executives Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) California lawyers Disney executives Warner Bros. people Accidental deaths in Nevada Pomona College alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1994 Victims of helicopter accidents or incidents in the United States