Helicopter crash-lands on busy motorway in Spain
IN MADRID – A helicopter has crashed onto a busy motorway in Spain, hitting a car and leaving three people injured, emergency services have said.
The crash happened on the M-40 motorway near Madrid just before 10am.
Footage showed the two-seat yellow helicopter lying on its side with its glass cockpit shattered and its tail smashed over the central reservation beside a motorway bridge after the crash on Friday morning.
The car’s windshield was also shattered and its body showed gashes.
Of the two people who were in the micro-helicopter, one was able to walk away from the wreckage, while the other was rescued from the wreckage by firefighters.
Both suffered minor injuries in the crash, as was the driver of the car hit by the helicopter.
One of the survivors had a light head injury, while another suffered a broken thigh bone and the third suffered light injuries, a Madrid emergency service spokesperson said.
Police said it was very lucky that no one had died, and that if a larger aircraft had crashed onto the motorway, there might have been fatalities.
“It is a miracle that no one was killed in this accident but it was perhaps due to the tiny size of the helicopter,” a police source told i.
“If it had been a full-size helicopter crashing on a motorway, things might have been different.”
Dozens of emergency officers were deployed to secure the area.
A spokesperson for European Rotors 2023, a helicopter show held at a nearby conference centre in Madrid, said the helicopter had been flying from the conference centre to the Cuatro Vientos airfield located south of Madrid.
The 757 kilogramme Enstrom 280FX helicopter can carry a pilot and two passengers.
Police said it was possible that a strong gust of wind caused the helicopter to crash on the motorway.
An investigation was launched by air traffic authorities into the cause of the accident.
