Name: Witnesses recall helicopter crash in Drexel Hill
Uploaded: 2022-01-11T17:54:54-05:00
Description: A medical helicopter with four aboard fell from the sky in Drexel Hill on Tuesday. Miraculously no one was injured when the pilot made a controlled crash landing outside a church. FOX 29's Chris O'Connell spoke to people who witnessed the crash.

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Witnesses recall helicopter crash in Drexel Hill

A medical helicopter with four aboard fell from the sky in Drexel Hill on Tuesday. Miraculously no one was injured when the pilot made a controlled crash landing outside a church. FOX 29's Chris O'Connell spoke to people who witnessed the crash.

DREXEL HILL, Pa. - Surveillance footage shows neighbors look on as an ill-fated medical helicopter with four aboard, including an infant child, sputtered across the sky Tuesday afternoon in Drexel Hill.

The crash occurred just before 1 p.m. on Burmont Road and Bloomfield Avenue near the Drexel Hill United Methodist Church.

Authorities say the helicopter was heading for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with a two-month-old baby on board. The baby and pilot were listed in stable condition with minor injuries. Two other passengers were not injured, authorities say.

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Pilot who downed helicopter on Drexel Hill street hailed a hero

A pilot crash-landed a medical helicopter Tuesday without loss of life in Drexel Hill, somehow avoiding a web of power lines and buildings as the aircraft fluttered, hit the street and slid into bushes outside a church.

In the video, viewers can hear the helicopter struggling to stay airborne as it stammers across the right side of the screen. It was apparent to people on the ground that the chopper was descending.

"He was going down!" one neighbor exclaimed moments after the helicopter fell from the sky.

The landing was described by officials as a ‘controlled landing’ and no other injuries were reported. The church sustained no damage.

The child, who was a patient, was rerouted on the ground to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia following the crash.

The area where the crash occurred was surrounded by homes, and Upper Darby School District says Upper Darby High School was to serve as a landing site for other responding medical helicopters.