28 February 2024 , 09:39
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Horrifying footage captures the moment a helicopter filled with tourists spins wildly out of control just seconds after take-off - before crash landing into a building.
Panicked onlookers filming the scene caught the moment the chopper slowly hovers up into the air before the pilot quickly loses control, causing the aircraft to spin around, jolt back and forth and collide into a restaurant.
The helicopter, carrying six people, took off from the roof of a building in Medellín, Colombia, on the evening of February 26. It immediately began to spin and continued to have trouble as its blades spun faster in a bid to stay airborne. It then crashed into a restaurant building just metres away.
The aircraft then plummeted down the side of the building and was caught on a large communications antenna, leaving it hanging almost upside down in the sky. In the video, terrified onlookers were heard saying: "It fell, they’ve been killed.” But all six people on board miraculously survived.
The helicopter plummeted down the side of the building (Jam Press Vid)Over 70 rescue workers rushed to the scene to free the hanging passengers. One of the two pilots in the helicopter suffered a broken leg and was rushed to hospital, according to local reports, while the other four tourists and co-pilot managed to get out with only minor injuries.
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An investigation is now underway as local authorities try to figure out whether the accident was down to a technical issue with the aircraft. The helicopter's model was a Bell 206 - often used in Medellín to transport tourists across the city in 15 minutes.
In a similar near-death incident in the US, a skier narrowly avoid an on-slope disaster after a helicopter soaring over the piste dropped its load and a huge gas cylinder tumbled down the piste. The helicopter was travelling over the Aprica ski resort in Sondrio in northern Italy, when the cylinder came loose and hit the ground, causing a puff of snow to cloud up around it before it trundled down the mountain, narrowly missing skiers.
As it gained speed, the cylinder brushed past a skier but they managed to dodge it just in time. Others skiing down the slope moved to the side to avoid it, according to Italian daily Corriere della Sera. There were miraculously no injuries and the cause of the incident remains unknown.