Three hurt in chopper crash

Three men have been injured when a helicopter hit powerlines and plunged to the ground near Murray Bridge in South Australia.

The Ambulance Service says two men were trapped in the wreckage and the other man, 29, was thrown clear with only minor injuries.

The trapped men were freed and flown to Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide.

The pilot, 39, has multiple fractures and the other man, 42, has serious chest and head injuries.

The accident happened just before midday ACDT, 12 kilometres north of Murray Bridge.

The crew had been doing maintenance work on the powerlines for ElectraNet when a rotor blade clipped a line and the helicopter plunged 15 metres to the ground.

The tail snapped off and a piece of the main rotor ended up more than 100 metres away from the rest of the wreckage.'Kicked up dust'

A woman who saw the crash says she is amazed those on board survived.

Shay Thomas-Rampal was driving past when the accident happened.

"I could see the helicopter doing maintenance on the line and thinking it was pretty close - a bit too close - and then all of a sudden it clipped the line and then flipped in the air and then smacked onto the ground and the rotors were still going so it kicked up heaps of dust so I couldn't see it for a while but it broke into two," she said.

Another person at the scene, Dr Martin Altmann, has praised the efforts of emergency crews.

"State Emergency Services were able to use their hydraulic lifters to lift the seriously-injured man who had the whole weight of the helicopter across his legs," he said.

Safework SA and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority are investigating the accident.

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Wed 19th November 2008 - 06:20pm