Helicopter crash in New Jersey could have been much worse
July 21, 2011, 04:44 pm
In Dayton, New Jersey, a helicopter crash left the pilot and passenger critically injured, but it could have been much worse.
Several workers were on top of the Indian Fields Elementary School roof for repairs when they noticed a helicopter circling above and the passenger taking photographs. Richard Mazur, one of the workers and a U.S. citizen originally from Poland, spoke on the incident.
"I said a joke: 'Maybe the pictures [are] for immigration," Mazur said. "In a couple seconds, the copter starts to go down, and it looked like he [might] hit us. We started to panic, because we had a lot of propane close to us for the hot tar, and he comes closer and closer to us and lower."
The helicopter pulled away from the school and crash-landed on a strip of dirt about 100 feet away. Mazur and his colleagues rushed to the scene and called emergency services. The workers pulled both injured people from the wreckage when they saw fuel spillage.
According to Helicopter Association International, there were 140 helicopter accidents in 2008, the most recent year data is available. Seventy-five people died from the 29 crashes that resulted in fatalities, showing the importance of pilot life insurance for all aircraft owners.
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