Paramedic was trapped under a crashed helicopter with no help arriving — 20 brave bystanders did the unthinkable
Hope has extraordinary ways of making things happen. Sometimes, this hope is carried out to those in need by angels in disguise who appear at the right place at the right time. When an aircraft crashed on a California Highway, three lives were at stake, ABC 7 reported. With chaos surfacing and little time to act, bystanders decided to take the situation into their own hands and become a ray of hope to the medic, nurse and pilot trapped inside. It is their intervention that gave the injured a shot at survival. The aircraft was returning from a hospital and was returning when it experienced an emergency.
It crashed in Sacramento and a nurse, Susan "Suzie" Smith, a paramedic, Margaret "DeDe" Davis and the pilot, Chad Milward, were injured, according to PEOPLE. The motorists’ duty began before the crash even occurred. They spotted the helicopter coming down and quickly slowed their vehicles. Marsha McHugh, who lives a few meters away from the highway, shared, “We hear crashes all the time. That's nothing new. But a helicopter? It could have been a lot worse. Those drivers were very alert. They must have put the brakes on seriously," she remarked.
Sacramento Fire Captain Peter Vandersluis had deployed a team of firefighters to the scene. They were nearby, tending to another accident and were able to get going immediately. It was going to take a long time before other rescue teams could assist. With the situation growing more worrisome by the second, the captain decided to take an unusual call. "Once I heard the woman groan, I decided to essentially yell out and get the bystanders to help lift the helicopter off of her," the captain said. In 20 years of his training and service, he had never experienced a situation like this. Nevertheless, he knew he had to do whatever it took, given the essence of time.
Vandersluis noted that people had already gotten out of their cars to help while the firefighters were arriving. Witnesses Chris and Isabella Lozano shared how they saw the crash unfold. "It's surreal. It's still surreal. I could see it falling. That's the crazy part of it," Chris recalled. Isabella added, "It had nosedived and when it nosedived, we were shocked and we all ran out of our cars and said get them out, get the people out... because we didn't know what was going to happen if the plane was going to go kaboosh.” The captain directed the bystanders to try and lift the aircraft so the trio trapped inside and under could be removed.
He gave the people two instructions — to “hold” or “lift” the aircraft and they bravely coordinated. The team arrived on scene and was able to assist the injured members. The rescued were transported to the hospital and were reportedly in a critical condition. While Davis and Milward are still recovering, Smith unfortunately did not survive the brutal crash. It is terrifying to imagine how much worse it would have been had it not been for the strangers' response. Captain Vanderluis commended them for their instrumental role in the rescue. “Just out of instinct — the people were there willing to help and they didn't hesitate and followed my exact commands," he said, commending their integrity.
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