Helicopter crash critically injures 3 shuts down Highway 50 in Sacramento

[KB4TEZ]

https://www.kcra.com/article/helicopter-crash-highway-50/68861531

(never did hear a distress call, glad they got to them quickly)

Lindsay Weber
Digital producer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
Three crew members were critically injured when a medical helicopter crashed on Highway 50 on Monday night, according to the California Highway Patrol.

CHP traffic logs indicate the crash was reported just after 7 p.m. on eastbound Highway 50 just east of Stockton Boulevard.  The Sacramento Fire Department said three people were in critical condition following the crash. There was no patient on board, the fire department said, but there was a pilot, nurse and paramedic.

Sacramento Fire said one person was trapped under the helicopter after the crash. A group of around 15 bystanders rushed in to help first responders lift the helicopter off the trapped person, officials said. Hear from a civilian who jumped in to help here.

No other vehicles were hit by the helicopter or involved in the crash, officials said. Read more about the helicopter involved in the crash here.

[Fryy/AvoFlight]

Been following this one closely. I sometimes monitor that hospital helipad freq for inbound/outbound traffic and Sacramento air-air freq on the KSUU feed, but I didn't have it up at the time. I did pull all the Fire Tac and EMS comms. Pretty hectic scene. 10-15 bystanders helped pull up the helicopter to rescue a trapped crew member.

[tyketto]

I drove past the east side of this. My daughter was at her viola lessons with her instructor that lives roughly 2 miles west of the UC Davis hospital, so to get back to Rancho Cordova, we have to get on US-50 eastbound at 65th street. This happened a mile west of that. We saw the traffic backed up as well as multiple ambulances coming from the west to assist, but didn't know what exactly was going on. Traffic was clear for us all the way back to Rancho, but we didn't know why. When we got in and saw the stats on all of the NCT feeds, we found out.

BL.