Officials release 911 call made by crew member of medical helicopter that crashed in Drexel Hill
"My main concern right now is the 2-month-old child. I need an ambulance here right away," he continued.
DREXEL HILL, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Moments after a medical helicopter crashed in Drexel Hill, Pa. earlier this week, a crew member managed to make a call to 911.
Officials in Delaware County released audio of that call on Thursday afternoon.
In the 911 call, the crew member is heard describing the pilot's condition.
"Everybody is conscious. I have one that is not alert and he's the pilot. He's a male in his late 40s," the crew member said.
"Is he breathing still?" the 911 operator asks.
"He is breathing, he is talking," the crew member, a flight medic, said.
The crew member then urgently explains that an infant patient was also on board.
"My main concern right now is the 2-month-old child. I need an ambulance here right away," he continued.
"They are already being dispatched on the way out there," the 911 operator says as the call ends.
"To come out of a helicopter crash and know you and your colleagues are hurt - he describes injuries - but again his insistence is that the first ambulance be there to take this child and finish the medical care," said Tim Boyce of Delaware County Department of Emergency Services. "It really goes to show the character of somebody in an absolute crisis."
The helicopter had been transporting a two-month-old girl from a hospital in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia when it went down on Tuesday. The baby, two crew members and the pilot Danial Moore were on board.
Moore was set to undergo surgery on Thursday. None of the other crew members, nor the baby, were seriously hurt.
Moore's mother told Action News that her son flew for years in the U.S. Army before flying medical helicopters.
Door cam video obtained by Action News shows the Eurocopter EC135 passing by moments before it crashed around 1 p.m. Tuesday on Burmont Road in front of Drexel Hill United Methodist Church.
RELATED: Lyft driver handed baby at helicopter crash site speaks to Action News
Pastor Russell Atkinson was not there when the helicopter crashed in front of his church, but showed up minutes after he got the call. He says he'll have quite the sermon to preach Sunday morning.
"Miracle is a word we can all use. This was a miracle. There is no reason at all why everything that went right here could not have gone wrong," said Pastor Atkinson.
For those who witnessed it, like Ron Chelsvig, it's something they will never forget. He was driving when he saw the helicopter go down.
"It went right over my car and then I saw it crash right behind me. It was just horrifying. It's God's grace that no one died," said Cheslvig.
The wreckage was moved to a secure facility in Delaware for further inspection after federal investigators spent Wednesday collecting evidence.
"There are electronic components on board that we will be able to download on-site, there are components we will have to remove and ship to other places here in the United States," explained Brian Rayner with the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday.
Lyft driver Kaythryn Donofrio, who was nearby when the chopper went down, exclusively told Action News she saw a crew member sitting on top of the aircraft holding what she did not know yet was a baby.
"He yelled, 'I need help.' Your first reaction is to stay away, but as soon as he said he needed help, I was like, 'What would Jesus do?'" recalled Donofrio. "I literally was like, 'Give me whatever you need to give me and get the heck out of there before it blows.'"
Someone snapped a photo her of running from the chopper clutching the infant.
Donofrio lauds the crew member as a hero.
"He actually could have jumped out himself, but as the picture shows, he was on top with the blanket. He didn't want to get out until he knew the baby was out," she said.
It could take a year for the final report from the NTSB.
