Saved By a Horse

Reported in the Sacramento Bee:

SACRAMENTO COUNTY - Authorities are amazed that a 26-year-old woman walked
away from a helicopter crash Thursday afternoon south of Rancho Murieta that
destroyed the vintage aircraft she was flying.
Perhaps even more remarkable, after walking nearly two miles from the crash
site, Alika Rogers was rescued by a horse when her injured body could go no
farther.

Rogers had ducked under the fence near a ranch house, but could not get
back to her feet. She screamed for help, but no one arrived - except the
horse in the pasture, which came to her side when people in the house failed
to hear her cries.

"The horse came over to her and nudged her with his nose, and she held onto
his nose and he lifted her up" and helped her to the house. "That was the
way she described it," said Debbie Jo Baker, who comforted Rogers while
emergency responders arrived.

Fire officials reported Rogers suffered moderate injuries in the crash and
was in fair condition at UC Davis Medical Center.

Flying over the rural, open fields of southeast Sacramento County about
12:30 p.m., Rogers felt the helicopter begin to shudder, apparently from
some sort of engine failure, said Capt. Steve Turner of the Sacramento
Metropolitan Fire District.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department and the National Transportation
Safety Board are investigating the crash.SACRAMENTO COUNTY - Authorities are
amazed that a 26-year-old woman walked away from a helicopter crash Thursday
afternoon south of Rancho Murieta that destroyed the vintage aircraft she
was flying.

Perhaps even more remarkable, after walking nearly two miles from the crash
site, Alika Rogers was rescued by a horse when her injured body could go no
farther.

Rogers had ducked under the fence near a ranch house, but could not get
back to her feet. She screamed for help, but no one arrived - except the
horse in the pasture, which came to her side when people in the house failed
to hear her cries.

"The horse came over to her and nudged her with his nose, and she held onto
his nose and he lifted her up" and helped her to the house. "That was the
way she described it," said Debbie Jo Baker, who comforted Rogers while
emergency responders arrived.

Fire officials reported Rogers suffered moderate injuries in the crash and
was in fair condition at UC Davis Medical Center.

Flying over the rural, open fields of southeast Sacramento County about
12:30 p.m., Rogers felt the helicopter begin to shudder, apparently from
some sort of engine failure, said Capt. Steve Turner of the Sacramento
Metropolitan Fire District.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department and the National Transportation
Safety Board are investigating the crash.