Preliminary NTSB report describes medical helicopter’s ‘near vertical, nose-down descent’ before Pennsylvania crash

PHILADELPHIA — The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday released a preliminary report detailing the frightening seconds before a medical helicopter crashed in the Drexel Hill neighborhood of Upper Darby on Jan. 11.

The four passengers — a 2-month-old baby, nurse, medic and pilot — survived without life-threatening injuries. The midday air-ambulance flight was transporting the baby girl from WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital southwest of Harrisburg to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

At one point, the four-page report says, the Eurocopter EC-135 P2+ appeared in a video recorded by a doorbell camera about one mile from the crash site in a “near vertical, nose-down descent.”