Desiree Horton Biography
Desiree Horton is a Los Angeles-based helicopter pilot and media personality. She is one of the few female helicopter pilots/on-camera reporters in the history of Los Angeles television.
Desiree Horton Age
She was born Desiree Tyler Horton on May 18, 1971, in North Hollywood, California, United States of America. Horton is 52 years old as of 2023.
Desiree Horton Married- Husband
Desiree hasn’t made her relationship public. Her marital status, whether married, engaged, divorced, or single, is unknown.
Desiree Horton Career
Horton began flying at the age of 19, shortly after graduating from North Hollywood High School in North Hollywood, California, a Los Angeles suburb. To pay for her training, she worked two jobs (at a car dealership and a drugstore) for two and a half years.” She also washed the helicopter of local pilot/reporter Scott Reiff in exchange for flying hours.”Horton used to be a stuntwoman, riding horses in movies. At the age of 21, she obtained her pilot’s license and has since flown traffic watch, tours, frost control, charter, wildland firefighting, police operations, aerial construction, bank runs, and medical and organ transfer. She has also transported helicopters throughout the United States.
Horton flew and reported for KABC 7 in Los Angeles from 2001 through 2005. From April 2005 to October 2005, she worked for KTLA 5 in Los Angeles, operating their helicopter and reporting traffic and breaking news for the KTLA Morning News. While flying for KNBC 4, Horton had to report the deaths of four of her fellow United States Forest Service firefighters in the arson-caused Esperanza Fire (a fifth would later succumb to his injuries). Horton now works various jobs, including firefighting by helicopter for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the United States Forest Service during the summer. The USFS only certifies roughly twenty women to perform this.
In the winter, she reports breaking news for KCBS 2 and KCAL 9 in Los Angeles in the evenings and at night. She has also piloted a helicopter for the Corona Police Department in California. Horton, who serves on the board of directors of the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association (PHPA), has over 7,400 hours in rotorcraft (as of August 2008). Her work has appeared in Private Pilot, Air Beat, Pilot Magazine, Pacific Flyer, and the LA 411 directory. She has also modeled for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle catalog as well as the Harley-Davidson clothes catalog. Horton and her helicopter have appeared in films such as American Icarus (2002), Showtime (2002), and One Six Right (2005).
Horton has also worked on several films in which the helicopter functioned as an aerial camera platform. She is one of just a few female SAG/AFTRA chopper pilots. Horton was supposed to feature in her own truTV (previously Court TV) television series Sky Racers in 2008.[Horton was flying and filming scenes for another truTV show, Maui Chopper, which premiered on December 10, 2008. In March 2010, Horton appeared in a commercial for Mattel, Inc.’s Barbie doll as Heli-Barbie. She was studying to become an emergency medical technician (EMT) in November 2011.
As of 2012, Desiree shares her time between flying news for KCAL/KCBS in Los Angeles as a pilot/reporter and working her second season on an exclusive use fire contract in Region 6 in Oregon flying a Bell 205A1++. Horizon Helicopters, Inc. is Horton’s production firm in Studio City, California. Horton keeps a blog, The Adventures of Chopper Chick!, where her fans can follow her adventures and ask her questions. She started the blog after discovering that there were so many people searching for her on the Internet.
Desiree Horton’s Net Worth
Desiree has an estimated net worth of 5 million dollars.