A medical helicopter crashed on a highway in Sacramento on Monday evening, critically injuring three people aboard, including a woman who had to be rescued from underneath the aircraft, according to officials. The helicopter had taken a patient to a hospital and was on the way back to the place it had been dispatched from when it experienced an "in-air emergency" just after 7pm, said Captain Justin Sylvia, a spokesperson for the Sacramento Fire Department. A pilot, nurse and paramedic were taken to hospitals and were in critical condition, the AP reports. No one on the highway was injured, Sylvia said, calling that "mind blowing" given that the helicopter crashed in the center of the highway.
"People reported that they basically saw the helicopter kind of going down quickly. So all the traffic slowed down," Sylvia said. One of the people injured was trapped underneath the helicopter and a small crew from the fire department was able to work with people on the highway to push the aircraft off the woman to get her out and into an ambulance. "It took every ounce of all approximately 15 people to move that aircraft up just enough to get her out," he said. The crash closed the eastbound lanes of Highway 50, according to officer Mike Carrillo, a spokesperson for the Valley Division of California Highway Patrol.
In images posted online, a long line of cars on Highway 50 could be seen backed up just behind a crashed helicopter. The aircraft was a REACH Air Medical helicopter, according to the company, which said in a statement that they "are keeping all those impacted in our thoughts and prayers." "The cause of the crash is still under investigation," Carrillo said, adding that emergency crews and CHP were on the scene.
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