Medical helicopter crashes near church; all 4 aboard survive

UPPER DARBY, Pa. – A aviator clang landed a aesculapian chopper Tuesday without nonaccomplishment of beingness successful a residential country of suburban Philadelphia, someway avoiding a web of powerfulness lines and buildings arsenic the craft fluttered, deed the thoroughfare and slid into bushes extracurricular a church, authorities and witnesses said.

It was a “miracle” that nary of the 4 radical aboard, including an babe patient, suffered life-threatening injuries, Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy M. Bernhardt said.

Rescue crews rushed to the wreckage by the Drexel Hill United Methodist Church successful Upper Darby astatine astir 1 p.m. and helped get the pilot, 2 unit members and the babe retired of the aircraft, Bernhardt said astatine a property conference.

The babe was taken to a infirmary arsenic authorities worked to notify the child's family, Bernhardt said.

The craft had taken disconnected from retired of state. It's believed to person encountered mechanical problems during the flight, said a Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesperson, citing reports from region officials.

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At the clang site, a halt motion connected the country was cleaved into 2 and had seemingly been deed by the chopper erstwhile it came down. The craft was connected its broadside successful 2 pieces, conscionable extracurricular the church.

“It’s a miracle, it’s an implicit miracle, present what you spot down me," Bernhardt said, adding that he's anxious to shingle the pilot’s manus for getting the chopper down the mode they did.

A witness, Joshua James, said helium was driving adjacent with his woman and young lad erstwhile helium saw the process of the chopper swaying backmost and distant arsenic it slid to a stop. He enactment his car successful reverse.

“It makes nary consciousness to maine that it didn’t deed immoderate of the wires oregon thing — that it didn’t deed us,” James said.

Jerrell Saunders, 28, said helium had been walking from his enactment successful attraction astatine an flat gathering adjacent erstwhile helium saw the chopper “just floating, similar existent low, similar highly low, similar it could onshore connected the gathering that I enactment at.”

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He got successful his car to spell to the hardware store and the chopper was going successful the aforesaid direction. He said helium saw it deed the crushed successful the mediate of the roadworthy and descent crossed the crushed until it crashed.

“I conjecture the aviator tried to onshore successful a harmless area, due to the fact that it took a bounce connected the a crushed and fell and, like, slid,” Saunders said.

The chopper turned connected its broadside and arsenic fume was coming out, helium saw radical jumping retired of the helicopter.

“I’m telling my grandkids astir this one,” helium said.

A occurrence authoritative said the chopper had astir an hour’s worthy of substance near astatine the clip of the crash, and crews took steps to support leaking substance retired from contaminating water.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the craft was a Eurocopter EC135 aesculapian chopper and that the bureau was investigating, on with the National Transportation Safety Board.

A spokesperson for Air Methods, the aerial aesculapian exigency transport work that owns the helicopter, said it was portion of the LifeNet programme based successful Hagerstown, Maryland. Federal agencies were investigating.

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“Our squad volition cooperate afloat with their efforts to measure the origin of this unfortunate accident,” said Air Methods spokesperson Doug Flanders.

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Beaty reported from New York.

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This communicative has been corrected to amusement that the spelling of Saunders’ archetypal sanction is Jerrell, not Jarrell.

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