Darby Upper: A pilot hit a medical helicopter on Tuesday without losing life in the residential area in the suburbs of Philadelphia, somehow avoided cable and building networks as an airplane, hit the road and descended into the bushes outside the church, the authority of the eyewitness.
It was a “miracle” that no four people on board, including a baby patient, suffered a life-threatening injury, the police supervisor said Timothy M.
Bernhardt.
The savior crew rushed to the rubble by the Church of the Methodist United Draxel Hill in Darby over around 1 P.M.
And helped get a pilot, two members of the crew and baby out of the plane, Bernhardt said at a press conference.
The baby was taken to the hospital when the authorities worked to tell the child’s family, Bernhardt said.
The plane has taken off from abroad.
It is believed to have experienced mechanical problems during the flight, a spokesman for the Emergency Management Agency Pennsylvania, quoted a report from regional officials.
At the accident site, the stop sign in the corner was split into two and seemed to be hit by a helicopter when it went down.
The plane was on his side in two parts, right outside the stone church.
“It’s a miracle, this is an absolute miracle, here what you see behind me,” Bernhardt said, adding that he wanted to shake the hands of the pilot to get the helicopter they did.
A witness, Joshua James, said he drove nearby with his wife and son when he saw the helicopter tail swaying back and forth when he stopped.
He turned his car.
“It doesn’t make sense to me that it’s not about one of the cables or anything – that it’s not about us,” James said.
Jerrell Saunders, 28, said he had walked from his job in maintenance in a nearby apartment building when he saw a helicopter “just floating, like very low, like very low, as it could land in the building where I worked.” He entered his car to go to the hardware store and the helicopter went in the same direction.
He said he saw him about the land in the middle of the road and sliding across the ground until it fell.
“I think the pilot tries to land in a safe area, because it rises on the ground and falls and, like, slid,” said Saunders.
The helicopter turned on the side and, when the smoke came out, he saw people jumping out of the helicopter.
“I tell my grandchildren about this one,” he said.
A fire official said the helicopter had about an hour of fuel left during the accident, and the crew took steps to continue to leak fuel from contaminated groundwater.
The federal flight administration said the plane was Eurocopter EC135 medical helicopter and that agency was investigating, along with the National Transportation Safety Board.
A spokesman for air methods, air medical emergency transportation services that have helicopters, said it was part of the Hagerstown-based LifeNet program, Maryland.
Federal agents are investigating.
“Our team will work fully with their efforts to assess the cause of this unfortunate accident,” said a spokesman for Doug Flanders Air Method.