At least three people are critically injured after a medical helicopter crashed onto a Sacramento highway on Monday evening.
The aircraft came plummeting down onto the busy Highway 50, which runs East from the California city until the Nevada state line near Lake Tahoe, just after 7 pm local time.
In the immediate aftermath, as many as 15 bystanders rushed to the crash site to help drag victims from the ruins, authorities said.
Officials said it was a REACH medical helicopter. Sacramento Fire told KCRA there were no patients on the aircraft, but there was a pilot, nurse and paramedic on board.
Captain Justin Sylvia with Sacramento Fire said all three crew members were taken to the hospital with critical injuries.
Two crew members were found on the roadway, while one was still stuck in the wreckage of the helicopter.
A flight tracker has indicated that the Airbus H-130 helicopter had departed from the roof of UC Davis Medical Center just minutes before the crash.
Authorities are still probing the incident (pictured) and said there are several injured victims. At least three people have sustained critical injuries
Sacramento City Councilmember Lisa Kaplan shared a picture of the crowded highway, urging people to ‘stay off’ the road, and announced it is closed in both directions
Authorities are still probing the incident and said there are several injured victims.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for comment.
A spokesperson for REACH, which is based at McClellan Airport, declined to discuss the crash with The Sacramento Bee.
The freeway remains shut down, with bone-chilling images and video captured by passengers stuck in their cars depicting the black-smoke filled sky near where the helicopter landed.
Davi Bychkoviak, a Sacramento resident who was on his way home from work when the tragedy struck, found himself driving just feet away from the aircraft as it slammed into the highway.
He told the Daily Mail that in the moments leading up to the disaster, he saw the red helicopter flying close to the ground, prompting him to start filming from his car.
‘Then just literally, a couple of seconds after, the crash happened, literally five feet next to me,’ he recalled. ‘It was pretty scary.’
‘There was no explosion, it was just loud and there was smoke everywhere,’ he went on.
Several injuries have been reported following a dramatic helicopter crash onto a Sacramento highway on Monday evening
Bychkoviak said he ‘didn’t understand what happened at first,’ but experienced terror once he processed what he had witnessed. ‘That’s the first time I’ve seen something like that.’
‘Honestly, I just really hope that everyone survived and everyone is safe,’ he added.
Sacramento City Councilmember Lisa Kaplan shared a picture of the crowded highway, urging people to ‘stay off’ the road. Eastbound lanes remain closed for the night, but westbound traffic has resumed.
In another X post, she sent her thoughts to the victims and first responders: ‘I pray for all in the crash. Thank our officers & all whom pilot for their public service.’
One video, taken by someone stuck on the freeway, shows the chaotic aftermath of the accident, with vehicles slowly inching forward on the road as the smoke shows no signs of letting up.
A picture taken at the crash site shows investigators standing in front of the ruins.
The debris from the red helicopter – flipped upside down – is seen scattered across several lanes.
