Just two days before his 19th birthday this past week, Logan Schneider just may have saved the life of a helicopter pilot in the middle of Washington state when they crashed into a set of power lines just above the teen and landed atop his tractor.
Schneider had just completed some work on his family’s cherry orchard set up in Orondo, Washington, when he heard the sounds of a loud crash directly above him and spotted a Hiller UH-12E.
“I had noise-canceling headphones on, and all of a sudden, I just hear something so loud above me,” the teen stated to NCWLIFE. “And 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.”
The teen claimed to KREM2 that the nose of the chopper wedged him against the steering wheel.
Directly after he managed to escape the vehicle, he spotted the pilot, 39-year-old Cori Johnson from Idaho, screaming and upside down, trapped inside his harness as the helicopter began to burn.
“I had to go in through the fire, reach my arms through and unclip him,” explained Schneider to the New York Times.
He stated that he “really wasn’t thinking” in the moment when he chose to rescue the pilot.
“I was just doing,” he stated.
Officials with the Orondo Fire Department responded to the crash site on the 7th of July just after 9 a.m. and discovered that both the tractor and the helicopter wreckage were both ablaze.
“Firefighters initial efforts were hindered by difficult access and high voltage power lines,” stated authorities. “Once the power lines were de-energized firefighters extinguished the fire on both the tractor and helicopter.”
Authorities also reported that the results of the initial investigation showed that the helicopter struck a set of high voltage power lines and quickly crashed into the cherry orchard.
It was reported by the New York Times that the F.A.A. states that out of the 12,000 total civilian helicopters flown last year, 114 crashes took place.
Logan’s father, David Schneider, stated to The Times that he got a call about the crash while working roughly 20 minutes away.
“I’m still in awe,” expressed David Schneider. “I still get goosebumps thinking of what could have happened and trying not to dwell on what could have happened.”
Both men only saw minor injuries and were quickly taken to Central Washington Hospital for treatment. While the pilot had a broken arm and some minor burns, Schneider was afflicted with some minor, second-degree burns on his arms and some muscle damage to his back.
Schneider explained that the odds of that actually happening are a million to one.
“I feel like I always have someone watching over me, God watching over me, protecting me,” Schneider stated to KREM2. “And you never know when it could be your last moment.”
Schneider stated to the press that despite the accident, he plans on going forth with his end goal of enrolling in an aviation program that will let him learn to fly commercial airliners.