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After a medical helicopter crashed in Delaware County, a nurse aboard the aircraft pleaded in a 911 call for an ambulance for the 2-month-old patient inside.
“My main concern right now is the 2-month-old child. I need an ambulance here right away,” the nurse told a dispatcher.
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The 28-second clip of the call was released Thursday by the county. In it, the nurse also notes that everyone in the chopper is conscious but that the pilot is injured. On the flight were the baby girl, the pilot – identified by a family member as Daniel Moore – a flight medic and the nurse.
“Everybody is conscious. I have one that is not alert. He’s the pilot. He’s a male in his late 40s,” the nurse told the 911 dispatcher in the call. The pilot was breathing and talking, and the main concern was the infant, the nurse said.
Flight data shows the helicopter was heading in a “laser-straight course line” at a steady speed and altitude until it reached the Drexel Hill area of Upper Darby Township, where witness and video evidence “describes the helicopter maneuvering erratically” before it crashed in front of a church Tuesday afternoon, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Brian Rayner said Wednesday.
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The flight was heading to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and coming from Chambersburg, a borough in southcentral Pennsylvania that is located west of Upper Darby Township, where the crash happened, Rayner added.
Emergency officials at the scene said the four people aboard were able to escape the wreckage before firefighters and police arrived.
The helicopter came down next to the front steps of the Drexel Hill United Methodist Church. At the time of the crash, there were children at a daycare inside the church, Upper Darby Fire Department Chief Derrick Sawyer said.
The church appeared to be spared any damage in the immediate aftermath of the crash, as did numerous houses across the street.
Early findings suggest the crash was an accident, Rayner said.
