Terrifying video shows panic in tourist helicopter as it goes out of control and crashes in Colombia before US passenger makes desperate video call to say goodbye to family
A terrifying video has emerged showing the panic inside a tourist helicopter as it went out of control before crashing in Colombia shortly after take-off.
The helicopter lost control and fell from the sky, crashing into the side of a tall building in Medellin on Monday.
All six people aboard the Bell 206 helicopter miraculously survived the ordeal.
One of the traumatized passengers was rushed to the hospital and treated for a broken leg and lacerations to the body, officials said.
Now new footage has revealed the chaos of passengers in the cabin as the helicopter spun through the air before finally plummeting to the ground.
Texas-based vacationer Francisco Salas, 36, hears emergency services calling in a combination of Spanish and English.
Petrified passengers on board the helicopter as it crashed into the roof thought they were going to die
New footage has emerged showing the inside of the cabin when the helicopter crashed
He also describes the scene to the camera, saying, “I had a helicopter crash.
“We are very high up and waiting for the police and the rescue team.”
After the crash, Francisco said, “I had a woman next to me with a lot of body weight who didn’t have the strength to support herself, so I put my arm around her.
“I used one arm to support myself against the helicopter while the other supported the woman for about 45 minutes.”
The helicopter ended up hanging from the side of the roof of a building, high above the ground
Dangling high in the air, everyone on board somehow managed to get out and survive
Salas, who was on the run with his girlfriend Luisa Osorio, went on to explain how he thought he was going to die.
He said: ‘I had my phone with me, I was on a video call with my mum and dad.
‘I even said goodbye to my brother, it was a very serious moment.
“I just wanted to say goodbye and thank everyone.”
The Texas businessman was one of six people on board the tourist helicopter at the time of the crash.
Joining him were two women from Costa Rica named Sandy Villalobos Marín, 34, and Karen Rivera Picada, 36, and Colombian nationals Luisa Fernanda Osorio and Jaime Andrés Echeverri.
Echeverri, the co-pilot, broke his leg.
The pilot was Brian Michel Álvarez, 32.
More than seventy emergency workers rushed to the scene and helped recover the travelers after the horrific crash.
Outside footage taken with a mobile phone emerged yesterday showing the plane taking off and then almost immediately starting to fall through the sky.
The helicopter lost control just moments after takeoff and began falling rapidly before crashing
Luisa Osorio, Salas’ wife, told Colombian newspaper Noticias Caracol that they had joined the flight to record content for social media networks to promote her singing career and his YouTube channel and thought they would not make it out alive.
Osorio said, “We have moved on. When it went up, it literally couldn’t do it all the way.
“It started spinning, it started spinning really fast and we said, ‘We’re going to die here.’
Osorio recalled being ordered by rescuers “not to move, to do absolutely nothing, not to even breathe” as they worked to pull them out.