A helicopter transporting an infant to a Philadelphia children’s hospital crashed outside a church Wednesday, injuring the baby and three others.
The chopper crashed into Drexel Hill United Methodist Church on Burmont Road, in Drexel Hill around 1pm Tuesday, following 911 reports of a helicopter in distress in the area.
Incredibly, no one on the ground was injured by the helicopter. The passengers and the pilot all suffered non-life threatening injures and one occupant could be seen crawling out of the wreckage.
‘It’s an absolute miracle,’ Upper Derby police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt told reporters over the lack of casualties. ‘It’s an absolute miracle on Burmont Road. That’s what it is.’
A helicopter transporting an infant to a Philadelphia children’s hospital crashed outside a church Wednesday, injuring the baby and three others
Someone appears to be climbing out of the smoking wreckage after it went down on Tuesday afternoon
The crash happened about 1 p.m., following 911 reports of a helicopter in distress in the area
Incredibly, no one on the ground was injured by the helicopter. The passengers and the pilot all suffered non-life threatening injures. The church did not appear to sustain significant damage in the crash
State Representative Mike Zabel echoed the sentiment, tweeted: ‘An absolute miracle in Drexel Hill today.’
Video footage from local news outlets shows smoke billowing from the vehicle as it lays in a residential neighborhood.
Upper Darby Fire Chief Derrick Sawyer called it a ‘miraculous landing’ and said the community was ‘truly blessed’ by the outcome. Even the church appeared largely unscathed.
A local man who was out running errands with his family said his body filled with terror as the helicopter appeared to drop directly above them.
‘I was actually frozen for a second when that happened because I was just looking at a helicopter,” Joshua James told CBS Philadelphia. ‘It’s no way to explain it. It almost feels like something from Game of Thrones, you see a dragon coming at your car because it was literally in the sky, a huge object coming toward you. It was insane.’
Witness Jarrell Saunders, who works at a nearby apartment complex, said he noticed the helicopter was in trouble before the crash.
‘It was ‘just floating, like real low, like extremely low, like it could land on the building that I work at,’ he told ABC News.
Moments later, he watched as the chopper landed on the road and slid into the church. As smoke began emerging from the downed aircraft, its occupants began leaping out, he said.
‘I’m telling my grandkids about this one,’ he told the outlet.
BREAKING – A medical helicopter has crashed in Drexel Hill. Firefighters are working the wreckage in the 600 Burmont Road. No word on injuries at this time. Delaware County has just put a TFR over the immediate scene forcing other aircraft out of the area. pic.twitter.com/8qC8u0R1aQ
— Dan Patrick (@6abcDan) January 11, 2022
The twin-engine EC 135 chopper was based in Hagerstown, Maryland and was operated through a local medical service called LifeNet, aircraft owner Air Methods said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash,
‘Our team will cooperate fully with their efforts to assess the cause of this unfortunate accident,’ the statement said. ‘Privacy rights with regards to those on board the aircraft will be honored, and we will not be sharing any additional information.’
Police said the helicopter came from out-of-state, and that they were working to notify the families of those injured.
Witnesses reported seeing the chopper hovering above the area for some time before it plummeted to the ground.
Investigators are probing the cause of the crash as passengers are treated for undisclosed injuries.
The street was filled with emergency vehicles, including two fire trucks, after the chopper went down
It’s miraculous no one on the ground was hurt by the helicopter which landed in the bustling neighborhood of Drexel Hill
A medical helicopter went down right next to a Delaware County, Pennsylvania, church Tuesday afternoon.
The crash occurred just three weeks after four people, including two nurses and were killed when a 10-seater private jet operated by a California company crashed near San Diego.
The Learjet 35A, operated by Aeromedevac Air Ambulance, smashed into a power line before exploding on a street in El Cajon, leaving no survivors on the plane.
The Oceanside Firefighters Association named Tina Ward, the wife of a recently retired local fire chief, Joe Ward, as one of the victims.
‘It is with heavy hearts that the Oceanside Fire Department and their fire family would like to extend our deepest condolences to our recently retired Chief Ward, his family, and all family and friends of the Aeromedevac flight crew N880Z,’ the post read.
Meanwhile, the International Association of EMTs and Paramedics on Tuesday identified one of the other victims of the plane crash as Laurie Gentz, a nurse with more than 30 years of experience who also served as president of her local union.
Firefighters work to put out flames on the ground after a small jet plane crashed in unincorporated area in a town about 17 miles east of San Diego
Flight nurses Tina Ward (foreground, circled) and Laurie Gentz (background, circled), have been identified as two of the four people who were killed when a medical plane crashed near San Diego on Monday
The medevac plane transported a patient from Arizona to Orange County, California, Monday and was returning to Gillespie Field when it went down.
The jet, flying out of John Wayne Airport in Orange County, struck power lines before crashing in the area of Pepper Drive and North 2nd Street.
National Weather Service data described sky conditions at Gillespie as ‘fog/mist’ at 6.55pm.
Radio communications between the jet and the airfield recorded by LiveATC.net indicated that trouble happened suddenly.
The pilot canceled an instrument flight rules approach to Runway 27 and requested a switch to Runway 17 using visual flight rules.
After the switch was granted and new instructions were given, the pilot asked that the field lights be turned up and was told they were already at 100%.
But in that moment something goes awry.
‘Oh, s***! Oh, s***! Oh, s***! No!’ the pilot is heard screaming, following by a loud noise and then silence.
Footage showed the smoldering wreckage lying in the middle of a road, most of it destroyed, with parts of the jet, including the landing gear, strewn across the street.
The crash also appeared to have caused a car to erupt in flames outside a house.
No fatalities or injuries were reported on the ground, however about 2,500 people were left without power by the fallen power line.
‘There is very little left of the aircraft,’ Fire Chief Don Butz said. ‘We weren’t able to find any survivors.’
Joe and Tina Ward are pictured with their three daughter in this photo the mom posted on Facebook a day before her death
Laurie Gentz was a transport nurse with more than 30 years of experience. She had only joined Aeromedevac Air Ambulance as a part-time employee in February
The Learjet 35A, similar to the one pictured above, was operated by Med Jet, an air ambulance company
Fire and smoke are seen rising above a neighborhood in El Cajon, California, on Monday night following the private plane crash
The San Diego County Medical Examiner has yet to officially identify any of the victims pending notification of next of kin.
According to her Facebook page, Tina Ward previously worked as an emergency room nurse at Palomar Pomerado Health.
Laurie Gentz’s LinkedIn profile reveals that she only joined Aeromedevac Air Ambulance as a part-time flight nurse in February.
She also worked as a critical care transport registered nurse at Rural Metro for nearly a decade.
‘I have 30+ years of experience in the field of Nursing, and have spent over 2 and a half decades doing Critical Care Transport both on the ground and in the air,’ Gentz wrote in the description.
Friends and co-workers of Ward and Gentz have been posting messages on Facebook expressing their grief.
‘My heart is heavy tonight,’ wrote Ryan McBride. ‘I lost some amazing coworkers with such an amazing company to work for…. The nicest crew to fly with! It’s because of ALL of you I gained confidence and began to love flying while performing my job as a flight paramedic while assisting Tina, Laurie and all of the other amazing nurses we have with us! While feeling so safe in the air!’
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating the crash. A final report, including the probable cause, will likely take 12 to 24 months, the board said.
Doorbell camera footage shows the Learjet 35A hurtling towards the ground before a flash of light erupts across the clouded sky as it explodes in El Cajon, California.
Footage from a doorbell camera shows the moment the plane hurtles towards the ground before a flash erupts across the clouded night sky in El Cajon, California
A blast lights up the night sky over El Cajon following the plane crash seen on a Nest camera
A cloud of smoke rising from the scene of the crash that killed everyone on board the plane
Parts of the jet are seen strewn across the road after it exploded in the residential neighborhood last night
Several fire and police units worked to get the blaze under control by about 9 p.m. local time in El Cajon, California
