Helena Wegner
The Charlotte Observer
ORONDO, Wash. — A helicopter crashed onto a 19-year-old driving a tractor in a cherry orchard in Washington, fire officials said.
Firefighters responded to the wreckage at about 9 a.m. on July 6 near Turtle Rock, which is about 4 miles south of Orondo and about 150 miles east of Seattle, the Orondo Firefighters Association said in a Facebook post.
The helicopter had flown into high voltage power lines before falling on the man on the tractor, fire officials said.
Then both machines burst into flames from the crash, fire officials said.
Logan Schneider was on the tractor when he heard something loud above him, despite his noise-canceling headphones, he told NCWLIFE.
“I look up, and I see the helicopter hit the power line, and then it comes crashing down, and it hit me on the tractor and pinned me against the steering wheel,” Schneider told the outlet.
He freed himself from the tractor and heard the pilot screaming from where he was trapped in the helicopter, he told KREM.
“I looked and I saw him upside down hanging. Fire was everywhere,” he told the outlet.
Schneider freed the 39-year-old pilot as the helicopter became engulfed in flames, the news outlet reported.
Both Schneider and the pilot were taken to a hospital, fire officials said.
“I’m lucky to be alive,” he told NCWLIFE.
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