Sometimes one's at a loss to explain how people can survive a tragedy. A helicopter crash in Kenosha, Wisconsin, this morning is one such incident.
A helicopter crashed into the roof of a house early Sunday, killing two people in the aircraft, but five people in the house were uninjured, police reported.
The helicopter crashed around 5:30 a.m., about one mile south of the Kenosha Airport, police Sgt. Eric Larsen said.
Fog was reported in the area at the time, but there was no immediate indication if that played a role in the crash. Visibility at 5:30 a.m. was three-quarters of a mile to a mile, National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Franks said.
Gary Stielow, who lives about 100 yards from the crash site, said he woke up and heard the helicopter before it crashed.
"The engine just didn't sound right," Stielow told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "It was sputtering. It was at full power, but it was sputtering real bad. Then you just heard a loud boom."
Stielow said he ran outside and saw that the family in the house had made it out safely. The bodies of the two people killed in the crash were on the ground next to the helicopter's engine, which was on fire, Stielow said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said the helicopter was a 2006 Robinson R-44 registered to Midwestern Air Services of Kenosha, which provides charter services and flight training.
The amazing thing about this accident is the way in which the helicopter hit the house. It struck the roof at the rear, carving a gap in the peak with its rotor blade and making a hole with its fuselage.
It then traveled diagonally down through the house, from back to front, and missed all five occupants as it did so, before it smashed its way out through the front of the house.
The helicopter then bounced across the front lawn, over the road, and landed in the garden of the house on the opposite side of the road. Sadly, the two occupants of the helicopter died in the wreck.
It's almost unbelievable that a helicopter, fully laden with fuel, can crash right through a house like that - and the five people in the building can walk away without a scratch! I guess their guardian angels were working overtime!
I suggest that family should immediately buy a few lottery tickets. With that much luck on their side, they're bound to win!
Peter
1 comment:
Imagine what the inside of the house looks like! I hope the blades didn't do too much damage to the house's structure.
Looks like a fairly low speed collision, seeing how the helo's fuselage hasn't broken up.
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