Ask Richard Money what it was like to survive a helicopter crash, and he’ll say it was pretty uneventful.
The 71-year-old pilot from Columbus was the only person in the Bell 47 helicopter when the engine quit and it crashed into a soy bean field near the Franklin Flying Field last month. The helicopter caught fire and was destroyed, and Money walked away with a few cuts and burns.
“I wish I had a more interesting story,” Money said. “It would be nice to say I was heroic, but I didn’t have much time to think.”
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When people ask how he survived, he said he got up and walked away before the helicopter caught on fire. He said it looks a lot worse in the pictures.
“When you look at the crash, you would think, my God, how can anybody survive that,” Money said.
Money walked away from his destroyed helicopter and got in a friend’s car to go to Johnson Memorial Hospital before an ambulance even arrived to the scene, he said.
At the hospital, he was taken to the critical care unit where he was X-rayed from top to bottom and checked multiple times for internal injuries. Doctors found nothing wrong with him, he said.
“They thought I should’ve been hurt,” Money said.
The hour he spent at the hospital was some of the best service he’s ever received, and he plans to write a letter thanking the hospital for their work, he said.
“I’ve never had better service in my 71 years,” Money said. “They deserve some recognition.”
Looking back, Money said he is more upset that he lost one of his best helicopters.
“It’s pretty nice to walk away from something and say, ‘I wish I hadn’t lost that helicopter,’” he said.
He didn’t know if the engine had any problems beforehand, and he doesn’t know why it quit while he was flying. And he can’t find the cause now because the crash destroyed the helicopter, he said.
“I’d like to take it apart and tell you what happened,” Money said. “If I knew it was going to happen, I wouldn’t have left the ground.”
The helicopter may have survived if it hadn’t landed in the soy beans, he said. Getting caught on the beans during the unexpected landing is what destroyed the helicopter, he said.
“Helicopters are made to land with no power,” Money said. “They are not made to land in a field of beans.”
