UPPER DARBY, Pa. ( Associated Press) — A pilot crash landed a medical helicopter without casualties in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia on Tuesday, miraculously escaping a web of power lines and buildings as the plane fluttered, hit the road and slammed outside into the bushes Gone. Church, officials and a witness said.
Additional Darby Superintendent of Police Timothy M. Bernhardt said at a news conference that none of the four people on board, including an infant, were life-threatening. Did.
Bernhardt said rescuers arrived at around 1 p.m. by Drexel Hill United Methodist Church in Upper Darby and helped retrieve the pilot, two crew members and the infant.
Bernhardt said the infant was taken to hospital as authorities worked to inform the child’s family. The flight took off out of state.
At the crash site, a stop sign at the corner had split in two, making it appear that the helicopter had been hit as it came down. The plane was on its side in two pieces, just outside the church. The insignia indicated that it was a medical helicopter.
“It’s a miracle, it’s an absolute miracle, here’s what you see behind me,” Bernhardt said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating with the National Transportation Safety Board.
Jarrell Saunders, 28, said he was on his way to maintenance at a nearby apartment building when he saw the helicopter “just floating, like a real bottom, extremely low, like it was on that building.” Can land on which I work.”
He got in his car to go to the hardware store and the helicopter was going in that direction. He said he saw it hit the ground in the middle of the road and slid to the ground until it crashed.
He turned to his side and as the smoke was coming out. He saw people jumping from helicopters.
“I’m telling my grandchildren about it,” he said.
A fire official said the helicopter had about an hour of fuel left at the time of the accident, and the crew took steps to flush the fuel out of the contaminated water.
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This story has been corrected to show that Saunders’s first name is spelled Jerrell, not Jerrell.
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