Helicopter Crash Witnessed by Hundreds

Oklahoma City emergency dispatchers were flooded with calls asking for help in the Britton and Rockwell area who witnessed a helicopter crash Friday morning, or saw the aftermath of that crash.  Several other neighbors tell Fox 25 they could hear and feel the crash from their homes.

"I heard this tremendous boom and the ground was shaking and I thought 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe what I heard,'" Dottie Schaefer said. "It was a such an unusual sound.  I don't know what it sounded like."

Schaefer , who is a retired Federal Aviation Administration worker, said she believes what she heard was the explosion after the initial crash.

A St. Ann Retirment Community resident also described the crash as a loud "boom."

"I experienced the Murrah bomibing in 1995 here in Oklahoma City, thats the first thing I thought about, the boom was that loud," Tom Corbett said.

Investigators say an EagleMed helicopter had taken off from Baptist Hospital around 5:45 a.m. Friday, when it crashed.  It then caught fire.  The crash happened near the St. Ann  Nursing Home.  Several of the first calls to 911 came from the nursing home.  Here's is a transcript of one call:

CALLER
"We're at St. Ann's nursing home. We have a fire out in the front, in
the parking lot. Not sure what's going on, it's blazing pretty good."
DISPATCHER  "Okay. You don't know what's on fire?"
CALLER "I'm trying to get there. (pause) What is that a car?  (yelling in the background) Oh my God. Somebody's in there?"
DISPATCHER "What is it?"
CALLER "It's a, it's a helicopter."
DISPATCHER  "Okay, we're on the way."
CALLER "Okay."

The Fox 25 Facebook page was also flooded with inquiries about the crash. Kari Steffen Judd posted she lives near NW 63rd and May, but the crash could still be heard at that distance.

"My husband heard a loud boom this morning around 5:45am... It must have been very loud!" Judd posted.       
 Helicopter Crash Witnessed by Hundreds

Posted: Friday, February 22 2013, 09:54 PM CST