The Associated Press
CHESTERFIELD, Ind. — A medical helicopter crashed Thursday morning in a small town, clipping a home and trees and injuring the three people on board.
Emergency crews had to cut through the wreckage to free the pilot, nurse and paramedic, police said. All three were in serious condition at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, said Clarian Health Partners spokesman Jon Mills.
“Either the pilot did a very good job of flying or was extremely lucky,” said James Kimm, police chief in Chesterfield, a town of about 3,000 residents 40 miles northeast of Indianapolis.
PHI Air Medical’s regional program director, Joel Hochhalter, said the helicopter was on a medical run shortly before 2 a.m. but he wasn’t sure of the destination. The private air ambulance service, headquartered in Lafayette, La., has an operation at Anderson Municipal Airport, not far from where the helicopter crashed behind a home.
The airport tower was closed at the time, said airport manager Steve Darlington.
He said the weather was poor, with visibility about 2 1/2 miles at the time of the crash, and the pilot did not turn on the runway lights when he took off. It wasn’t immediately clear if the pilot had tried to turn back to the airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration sent investigators to the crash site.