PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — One month ago, a medical helicopter headed to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia crashed on the property of a Drexel Hill church. It could have been catastrophic, but it wasn’t. As the NTSB continues the investigation into the cause of the crash, the pastor of that church is reflecting on faith.
It’s been called “The miracle on Burmont Road.”
The Rev. Russell Atkinson, pastor of Drexel Hill United Methodist Church, chooses his words carefully.
“What is the range of remarkable and what is the range of miraculous?” he said, standing in front of the temporary orange fence surrounding the spot where the chopper crashed on Jan. 11.
The four people on board, including a 2-month-old child, all survived. The pilot, Daniel Moore, was hurt the worst, with a fractured sternum.
"I had God as my co-pilot that day. He took care of the crew, and we landed in his front yard, so that was kind of nice," Moore said when he left the hospital.
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No one on the ground was hurt that day, and there was no major damage to property.
“That’s the tiniest little scrape from the helicopter,” Atkinson said, pointing to a spot on a stone railing that the blade of the helicopter grazed on its way down.
“You see the power lines,” he said, looking up. “It’s difficult to imagine — as a matter of fact, it defies my ability to imagine how this pilot actually managed to do this. The only thing that was whacked out was this stop sign here.”
There was minor damage to a utility pole, and the crash took out a stop sign, which has been replaced.
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Just then, a car stopped at the corner in front of the church, and the driver lowered his window to comment on the size of the area where the pilot landed.
“I didn’t realize how small that was,” he said to the pastor, before driving off. “Yeah, I thought it was much bigger than that."
The incident has been called miraculous locally and worldwide.
“In my congregation people are rightly thankful that this didn’t do worse damage, and we see that absolutely as a blessing,” he said.
“Something like this can’t possibly not change the vibe, the mood, the underlying current of a group of people.”
Where once sat the battered wreckage of a helicopter is now a hole, about 10 feet deep. Environmental engineers removed the soil to test it for contamination. But Atkinson hinted that even this could be a prelude to something more bright and colorful.
“If that comes back negative, then this will be filled in and we’ll get to do a little gardening.”