Aug 7, 2008 9:47 pm US/Pacific
Chopper Crash Survivors Still Recovering
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
The chopper had just finished a first run taking firefighters from the frontlines back to camp. Several dozen nearby firefighters who saw the crash called for help. And there are amazing stories of survival after the crash. Four men escaped just before the chopper exploded into a fireball.
Survivor Rick Schroeder tells the LA Times he thinks the helicopter's rotor hit a tree, and then the chopper went into a nosedive.
He says he blacked out and woke up with a body on top of him before escaping through a window.
A family member of youngest survivor, Jonathon Frohreich, talked to CBS13, telling a similar story of surviving the catastrophic crash of the massive chopper.
Jonathon's family says after the crash, Jonathon was looking for an escape. He went to the back of the chopper and there was no way out. That's when he went to the window.
Jonathon was then able to kick out the window, and it was wide enough for him to crawl through. He crawled up a slope of land just before the chopper exploded explained Jonathon's family.
Jonathon escaped with a back fracture and some bad burns. Doctors said that the major burns that Jonathon endured were to his face.
Jonathon joined fellow firefighter survivor, Mike Brown, at U.C. Davis' Burn Unit. At first they were both on ventilators.
But since the crash, doctors are happy to report that they are both doing quite well. And both have been upgraded to 'good condition.'
Pilot Bill Coultas isn't so lucky. Doctors say that he sustained burns to 1/3 of his body. He's just out of surgery, but he will not be out of the hospital for at least a month.
The most severely injured of the survivors, the fortunate four, all who lived through the deadliest firefighter air crash in U.S. history.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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