The odds of being struck by a falling helicopter are low… but never zero!
Two days before his 19th birthday, recent high school graduate Logan Schneider was helping his brother tend his cherry orchard in Wenatchee, Washington, when disaster struck – literally. While he was riding a tractor down a row of trees, a helicopter fell from the sky and landed directly on him.
Logan was wearing noise canceling headphones just before the crash. He says he heard a couple of thumps and looked up just in time to see the chopper careening straight for him, taking out high voltage power lines as it crashed.
He barely had time to brace himself before a fire broke out and he was pinned against the steering wheel. As he managed to wriggle out of the wreckage, he heard pilot Cori Johnson screaming for help.
“I heard him screaming,” Logan recalled. “I looked and I saw him upside down hanging. Fire was everywhere. When I was in the moment I really wasn’t thinking. I was just doing.”
Logan reached through the flames and unhooked the pilot’s safety harness, allowing him to escape the inferno. Once he was on his feet, Logan helped him get away just seconds before flames burst 30-feet into the air.
“Looking at what happened, I don’t know how we both got out,” Logan said.
Firefighters arrived and had to de-energize the power lines before putting out the blaze. Both Cori and Logan were taken to the hospital with painful but minor injuries. While Logan suffered second-degree burns on his arms and muscle damage in his back, Cori had a broken arm and multiple burns.
“They took me in the ambulance with the guy, and we went to the hospital,” Logan said. “I’m lucky to be alive.”
Logan spent about five hours in the hospital where several people told him he was so lucky he should go buy a lottery ticket. So he did!
“I did!” Logan said. “I won two bucks! The craziest thing about the whole situation is the pilot and I share the same birthday. I just thought it was so bizarre.”
Sounds like it was meant to be, right? Well, this story gets even more coincidental. Logan has always planned to enroll in aviation school so he can become a commercial airline pilot. The crash has not deterred him, and he still plans to take to the skies at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Washington this fall. If anything, this fateful accident has strengthened his convictions and confirmed his beliefs.
“I feel like I always have someone watching over me, God watching over me, protecting me,” he said. “And you never know when it could be your last moment.”
What are the chances? Not only did a helicopter fall on him, but he also saved the pilot’s life. The fact that both men escaped with minor injuries is nothing short of incredible.
Don’t forget to share this story to wish Logan and Cori speedy recoveries.
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