Texas air ambulance crashes, killing two

[tniuqs]

Two people are dead after a CareFlite helicopter crash yesterday in Midlothian, Texas. The Star-Telegram (Domingo Ramirez Jr./June 2) said the mishap, which occurred around 2 p.m., was apparently a sudden event culminating with the chopper exploding when it hit the ground. The aircraft was not carrying a patient at the time. Names of the deceased have not yet been released. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the Texas Department of Public Safety are now investigating.

Another sad day for HEMS, when will this end what is the body count needed to stop this madness ?

Single pilot, Single Paramedic and at night WTF dumb squared.

This happened in the same county as Bledsoe's abode ! I believe Bryan is going to loose it and march to your nations capital.

Twin engine, 2 Pilots, NVG, IFR, pre approved GPS pads operating on one engine and 2 Medics in the back ..... Bottom LINE !

Just look to the Canadian experience for safety we have had only 2 hard landings in 25 years of HEMS ... sheesh do I have to go to YOUR Nations Capital to stop my USA brothers and sisters from dieing ?

Damn it this hurts my heart !

NO CHEER.

[SA_Medic]

Twin engine, 2 Pilots, NVG, IFR, pre approved GPS pads operating on one engine and 2 Medics in the back ..... Bottom LINE !

This is standard practice for my current employer. No argument will be entered into, if you do not comply with this you there will be no flight. Sa d day indeed seeing another headline like this.

[billygoatpete]

Couple of corrections....

The crash happened at 2 PM....which is still daylight hours in Texas.

The crew was a mechanic and a pilot on a test flight therefore the helicopter was not staffed for a medical response.

Before we go off on what shoulda, woulda, coulda happened, lets get the facts straight.

This is a tragic loss for the folks in Texas, but it dosen't need to be made any more tragic by a bunch of misinformation spread across the good ol' internet.

Just my $.02

Link to article

Edited x1 to add link..

Edited June 3, 2010 by billygoatpete

[tniuqs]

Couple of corrections....

The crash happened at 2 PM....which is still daylight hours in Texas.

The crew was a mechanic and a pilot on a test flight therefore the helicopter was not staffed for a medical response.

Before we go off on what shoulda, woulda, coulda happened, lets get the facts straight.

This is a tragic loss for the folks in Texas, but it dosen't need to be made any more tragic by a bunch of misinformation spread across the good ol' internet.

Just my $.02

Link to article

Edited x1 to add link..

Sincerest apologies ALL, I stand corrected and a bit embarrassed

I work off the military time and my error, sub therapeutic caffeine levels perhaps ?

I did search with goggle but nodda came up, my information was very brief and I did jump to conclusions in error.

But this brings up a point being that in the vast numbers of HEMS crashes as this is the typical senario, pushing the envelope with single pilot and restricted to VFR as a result just look to the FAA website for HEMS incidents stats and adding in that the weather factors.

I do stand by my statement:

Twin engine, 2 Pilots, NVG, IFR, pre approved GPS pads operating on one engine departure criteria and 2 Medics in the back ..... Bottom LINE !

Looking deeper into the 222 ... quite a poor history with "tranny" issues and that said in passing only, they (FAA) are still looking for possible causes.

Thanks for the real info and background.

cheers

Edited June 3, 2010 by tniuqs

[spenac]

My understanding is that careflite had just bought this one and were getting it flight ready. It still had another services paint scheme.

[rat115]

Condolences to the family, friends and coworkers of the mechanic and pilot who were on the flight. We know that they played an important part of the EMS team.

Glad to hear that no patient or medical staff was on board when it crashed.