All six people on board a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department rescue helicopter "miraculously" remained alive after the aerial vehicle crashed in the Angeles National Forest near the city of Azusa on Saturday.
The Los Angeles Times reported that five of those injured were deputies with the Sheriff's Department, while the sixth was a doctor from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
All of them suffered various injuries, including fractures and broken ribs, and were later rushed to the Pomona Valley Medical Centre for treatment, according to Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
He told the LA Times that "they are in stable condition, some more banged up than others, but thankful to be alive”.
The crash occurred after the helicopter was responding to a call by L.A. County Fire to transport a patient who was injured in a car accident. It remains unclear what caused the copter to malfunction, but it crashed near the Morris Dam on a remote stretch of San Gabriel Canyon Road in the early hours of Saturday.
Villanueva pointed out that "the fact that it [the helicopter] did not roll over and go all the way down, or that there was no fire, is nothing short of a miracle. So we're very grateful for that".
He added that paramedics aboard the helicopter extracted the pilot and co-pilot after the crash, with firefighters already being on the scene to help treat the injured.
The sheriff underscored that the copter's crew had "saved thousands of lives over the years" as they navigated the county's narrow canyons and complicated topography.
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