Caller at Helicopter Crash Site Told 911 Pilot Wasn’t Alert

Caller at Helicopter Crash Site Told 911 Pilot Wasn’t Alert
A medical helicopter rests next to the Drexel Hill United Methodist Church after it crashed the day before in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby, Pa., on Jan. 12, 2022. (Matt Rourke/AP Photo)
The Associated Press
1/14/2022
Updated:
1/14/2022

UPPER DARBY, Pa.—A man at the scene of a medical helicopter crash outside Philadelphia this week told a dispatcher he was most concerned about the infant girl who survived, but that the pilot was the only passenger not alert after the wreck, according to a 911 call excerpt released Thursday.

The unidentified caller described the pilot as a middle-aged man in the transcript released by Delaware County officials.

“He is breathing, he is talking,” he told the dispatcher. “My main concern right now is the 2-month-old child, I need an ambulance here right away.”

The dispatcher said help was already on the way.

The pilot somehow crash-landed the helicopter without loss of life next to a church in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia.

Brian Rayner, senior safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters Wednesday he was grateful that the occupants were relatively unhurt in the 1 p.m. Tuesday crash.

The pilot’s injuries were most severe, but the other two adults and the girl were “miraculously unhurt,” he said.

A spokesperson for Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania said no new information about the girl’s condition was available.

The Eurocopter EC135 medical helicopter was owned by Denver-based Air Methods, an air medical emergency transport service. The company said the aircraft it was part of the LifeNet program based in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Firefighters from Upper Darby, Pa., stand near a medical helicopter that crashed next to a church in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia, on Jan. 11, 2022. (Claudia Lauer/AP Photo)
Firefighters from Upper Darby, Pa., stand near a medical helicopter that crashed next to a church in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia, on Jan. 11, 2022. (Claudia Lauer/AP Photo)