Life Team Heli Crash

[MedicRN]

http://www.kbsd6.com/Global/story.asp?S=6968236

Four people are hurt after a hard landing by a LifeTeam helicopter in Mullinville this afternoon. A leiutenant at the scene says the victims are the three people on board and the crash victim on the ground they were trying to help. Crew members were taken to various hospitals. The crash victim was transported to a local trauma center.

An eyewitness tells our crew at the scene the air ambulance was landing when it started to rock. It hit some powerlines and came down.

Highway 54 in Mullinville is now open to westbound traffic. Traffic is being re routed to 400 while crews work the scene.

The LifeTeam chopper is based out of Dodge City.

http://kfdi.com/Article.asp?id=461606&spid=9846

Four people were on board the LifeTeam medical helicopter that crashed this afternoon in Kiowa County.

Officials at the Western Plains Medical Complex in Dodge City confirm it was a chopper that operated out of Dodge City. It crashed near Mullenville in Kiowa County. We've now heard reports of injuries but we do not know how serious those injuries are. At least one of the injured has been taken to an emergency room in Dodge City and possibly a LifeTeam helicopter is on its way to Wesley Medical Center here in Wichita with another one of the injured.

Highway 54 in Mullenville is closed...traffic is being re-routed to Highway 400.

Last I knew, the crew and patient are in Via Christi RMC in Wichita, KS. All are in fair condition. If anyone has anymore information, please let us know.

[flight-lp]

Here's another article from another site with a small detail that most are leaving out of their reporting..........

Medical copter crash injures 3 in Kansas

The Associated Press

MULLINVILLE, Kan. | Three members of a LifeTeam medical helicopter crew were injured today when the helicopter crashed while responding to a traffic accident in southwest Kansas.

Trooper Ronald Knoefel, a spokesman for the Kansas Highway Patrol, said the helicopter took off from Dodge City to respond to a crash between a pickup and tractor-trailer on U.S. 54 in Mullinville.

The aircraft crashed while landing at the site of the traffic accident, Knoefel said.

The three injured crew members and one person injured in the first crash were taken to a Wichita hospital. The extent of their injuries was not immediately known.

Winds in the area were gusting to 40 mph, Knoefel said, but it was not clear whether that was a factor in the helicopter crash.[/font:c904319c44]

Godspeed recovery to the crew, they are in my thoughts and prayers. Very sad that this occured as it could have been prevented..................

The good 'ol bell 206, safest aircraft in the world............except when used in EMS fully loaded with fuel and crew and then flown to a scene with a crosswind gusting at 31 knots...

[tniuqs]

No offence intended but the "jet box" or was it a "long box" ? These are extremely underpowered and very poor excuse for a Medivac Bird, they are also a bitch to work in as well, just my 2 cents, I have long lined under them....a very LONG time ago.

So when will the FAA put some form of controls on types of birds allowed to be designated "Medivac" ever hear of the military using this Bell 206 as a medivac platform...NOPE and for good reason, good grief this is a sad state of affairs.

As for cross wind ? was the pilot attempting to put it down and not taking into account winds on final with lines ??? hmmm there is more to this, me thinks.

I am very pleased to hear that no one was killed, Question is just when will the FAA get serious about these abominable statistics...maybe listen to Bledsoe ! and very soon I hope.

[flight-lp]

Yea that would be nice, but as long as you have for profit operators lining the government's pocket and spewing their BS to underserved America, they will have the support of both. Despite numerous crashes (hard landing my a#*, it was a crash) and several fatalities, the FAA still isn't intervening. Give 'em time, they will again kill, maybe somewhere down the line someone will give a da*# and start doing something about it. Another detail of the 206.................In addition to being underpowered (even with the C-30 conversion), very few of them have A/C (L-4 models only). I feel for their pts. What really needs to happen is for state EMS offices to get involved and say "No", we don't want your unsafe a#*es operating in our state. Someone needs to put a foot down, we are losing too many helicopters........................

It was a Long Ranger, very very few Jet Rangers converted for EMS (thank god!).

Gandering an educated guess, I'd say the pilot lost control after the winds got underneath and he went throught the wires. Wind was from the south, the lines he hit appear to be north / south and he crashed on west U.S. 54. So it seems he made a crosswind approach, which, with the winds as high as they were (and he should have been aware of it as it is his home airport's automated weather service, unless he just didn't listen to it), was not appropriate. Time will tell, the prelim NTSB report should be out soon...................

I wonder if this was the same pilot that thought landing on a grain silo was a good idea? That one occured with this same company about a month ago. Sheer stupidity.................

[MedicRN]

http://www.dodgeglobe.com/stories/082407/l...070824001.shtml

Two of the three helicopter crew members injured in a "hard landing" Wednesday afternoon in Mullinville were released from medical care Thursday.

Teresa Pearson and Jeff Luck were examined, treated and released from the Via Christi-St. Francis hospital in Wichita, said Mike Johnson, medical operations director for Midwest LifeTeam.

Pilot Richard Schneider was undergoing surgery on his back late Thursday afternoon to correct damage he sustained in the crash.

Johnson said Schneider wasn't likely to be paralyzed and was expected to make a full recovery.

Johnson, Pearson and Schneider were all injured when their helicopter unexpectedly crashed Wednesday just south of Mullinville while they were attempting to respond to a two-vehicle wreck.

Despite the crash, Johnson said the crew members and families were counting themselves lucky the injuries weren't worse.

"Everybody on the crew is in great spirits," he said. "We really do appreciate the outpouring of support that everyone has shown for our crew."

What caused the rough landing, however, remains a mystery.

Johnson said investigators have bandied speculation back and forth, but no solid answers have emerged. That the wreck even occurred was strange, he said.

"It was essentially a brand-new helicopter," he said. "So, there's definitely some mystery as to what caused it."

Johnson said investigators are leaning toward mechanical failure as the cause. He said he was also confident the cause would be discovered because of the plethora of eyewitnesses and testimony from the crew.

Early speculation suggested that hard gusts of wind may have pushed the helicopter into power lines after it landed. Johnson said a subsequent investigation has shown that weather probably wasn't the problem.

The National Transportation Safety Board has been called in to manage the investigation.

Aaron Sauer, the investigator in charge of the crash, said the NTSB is working with the Federal Aviation Administration out of Wichita and the Kansas Highway Patrol to collect as much information as possible on the wreck.

Sauer, who is based in the agency's regional office in Denver, said it wasn't his job to determine the cause, but rather to present a dossier to his bosses in Washington, D.C., who would then release an official cause.

No one from the board has made a trip to Kansas yet, Sauer said. But within the next several weeks, he and a crew will travel to Hutchinson, where the helicopter was taken for examination.

From there, he said he would interview the injured crew members once they have fully recovered. He and his crew will then sift through eyewitness interviews collected by the FAA and the Highway Patrol.

"There's a lot of information we have to go through," he said.

Sauer said an average aviation accident investigation can take anywhere from three to six months, so he urged caution for those itching for quick answers.

"You can never anticipate how long these things will take," he said.

Phone calls to the Wichita branch of the FAA weren't returned as of press time Thursday.

The other crew members of the Dodge City LifeTeam said their company told them not to speak publicly about the accident.

[KSEMT122]

Well I was just about ready to say I'm glad noone I know was injured and then I read that Teresa was on that bird. She's a sweetie, Everyone calls her "tweety bird". Anyway I've been up in the air with LifeTeam before during 45mph sustained winds with gusts well over 60mph. I actually have it on video tape. I'm not sure what the standard is in Rotor Wing Aviation as far as what wind speed is to fast to fly in. I just know from experience that LifeTeam will push that limit and this time it may have bitten back. Glad everyone is expected to be ok. God is good.