Witnesses saw a helicopter spinning in the air before it crashed Saturday morning in the front yard of a home in southeast Fresno, sending two people to the hospital.
The helicopter appeared to clip the edge of a house, then sheared off the top of a palm tree shortly before 10 a.m., Fresno Police Lt. Charlie Chamalbide said.
The crumpled helicopter came to rest on its side in the 4900 block of East Garrett Avenue, near Jensen and Willow avenues, just south of a canal.
No one in the home was injured. The crash did “very minor” damage to some fascia board on the home, he said.
The 47-year-old pilot and a 33-year-old passenger, both men, had minor injuries, and were taken to Community Regional Medical Center.
It was a surveying helicopter on a test run, Chamalbide said. He did not have any more information about who owned the craft or who the people were working for.
“They heard a pop and then they started losing altitude — that’s as far as we know,” he said.
When police arrived, the pilot was lying down and the passenger was walking around.
“They were both conscious and breathing and talking to us,” he said.
The street has been blocked off and the National Transportation Safety Board has been called to investigate.
The aircraft crashed on a residential street with single-family homes on one side and senior apartments on the other.
“It’s very lucky that nothing else was damaged or anybody was injured,” Chamalbide said.
Neighbors witness the crash
Several people heard and saw the crash.
Neicy Miramontes, who lives nearby, said her 9-year-old son, Ezekiel Carranco, was walking to a friend’s house when he saw the helicopter in trouble.
“All of a sudden he looks up and sees the helicopter spinning and after that he heard a loud boom,” she said.
Jose Torres Galvan was driving by when he saw the helicopter spinning. He called police and ran to help before taking video of the crash that he shared with The Bee.
Kathy Logan, who lives in the Oak Park senior housing complex across the street, said the helicopter sounded like it was having problems before the loud crash.
“He sounded like he’s losing power and he’s getting closer,” she said. “As soon as I said that, ‘Bam, it crashed.’”
Many of the residents of the senior complex couldn’t get to their apartments for an hour or two, before being escorted in by police officers. The street was expected to be blocked off for about 24 hours.
Logan said she was thankful no one else in the residential neighborhood was injured.
“That was a Jesus moment – that he didn’t hit nothing and nobody (else) was hurt,” she said. “Thank goodness it was just a tree.”
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