Helicopter Crash on Sacramento Highway Leaves Three in Critical Condition

Tue Oct 21 2025 03:52:51 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

A REACH Air Medical helicopter crash-landed on a busy highway in Sacramento, causing critical injuries to three crew members. Fortunately, no motorists were harmed during the incident.

A medical helicopter returning from a patient drop-off crashed onto Highway 50 in Sacramento, landing upside down and leaving three crew members critically injured. Witnesses reported quick responses from passersby, who aided in the rescue of a woman trapped beneath the aircraft. Remarkably, no injuries were reported among motorists, despite the crash's location. The incident is currently under investigation by authorities.

A medical helicopter crashed on a highway in Sacramento, critically injuring three people aboard, including a woman who was pinned underneath and was rescued with the help of motorists who lifted part of the aircraft, according to officials.

The helicopter had taken a patient to a hospital and was on the way back to the place it had been dispatched from when it experienced an “in-air emergency” just after 7 p.m. Monday, said Captain Justin Sylvia, a spokesperson for the Sacramento Fire Department. He said it looks like the helicopter crashed upside-down and left a large debris field.

A pilot, nurse, and paramedic were taken to hospitals and were in critical condition, he said. No one on the highway was injured, he said, calling that “mind-blowing” given that the helicopter crashed in the center of the highway.

“People reported that they basically saw the helicopter kind of going down quickly. So all the traffic slowed down,” Sylvia said.

One of the people injured was trapped underneath the helicopter and a small crew from the fire department was able to work with people on the highway to push the aircraft off the woman to get her out and into an ambulance.

“It took every ounce of all approximately 15 people to move that aircraft up just enough to get her out,” he said.

The helicopter did not catch on fire, Sylvia said.

The crash closed the eastbound lanes of Highway 50, according to officer Mike Carrillo, a spokesperson for the Valley Division of California Highway Patrol.

The aircraft was a REACH Air Medical helicopter, according to the company, which said in a statement that they “are keeping all those impacted in our thoughts and prayers.”

“We are in the process of determining the details of this situation, as well as the condition of the REACH crew involved, who were all taken to area hospitals,” the company’s statement said.

In images posted online, a long line of cars on Highway 50 could be seen backed up just behind a crashed helicopter. “The cause of the crash is still under investigation,” Carrillo said, adding that emergency crews and CHP were on the scene.