Two More Fatal Medevac Chopper Accidents

A bad year gets worse:

Friends mourn DPS medic killed by chopper blade

by Nathan Gonzalez – Oct. 14, 2008 11:23 AM

The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)

He was a 36-year-old devoted father of two, who at a young age knew he wanted to help people when they most needed it, and that’s exactly how Air Rescue Paramedic Bruce Harrolle died.

Harrolle, a Flagstaff-based paramedic and officer with the Department of Public Safety helicopter team, died Monday during the rescue of two stranded, dehydrated hikers in the Bell Rock area of Bear Mountain in Sedona.

The DPS Air Rescue Ranger Helicopter based in Flagstaff was dispatched about 2:40 p.m. to assist the Sedona Fire Department and the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office in rescuing the hikers.
Crewmembers loaded one person aboard the aircraft, but while Harrolle was escorting the second into the chopper, he was struck by the aircraft’s rotor blade.

“These are two very experienced pilots and paramedics, they practice this rescue regularly,” DPS Lt. James Warriner said at a press conference Monday evening. “They are very dangerous rescues because typically they work off of either one skid or both skids or just barely on the rocks.”

Warriner said Tuesday that no updates in would be given until the investigation is complete, which could take up to a year. Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board did not return calls for comment.

DPS and NTSB investigators descended on Sedona to determine how Harrolle died, during what otherwise was a successful rescue in a mountainous area 1.5 miles northwest of Doe Mountain and 1.5 miles southeast of Bear Mountain.

But while officials hope to learn what went wrong, friends and family remembered Harrolle as a family man willing to step forward when needed.

“I was just really kind of stunned,” said Vance Hummelgard, a childhood friend who was in Harrolle’s wedding and lives in Wilmington, Ohio.

“It’s like it’s not even real. It’s taken some time for the reality of it to set in deeper that he actually is gone. I never expected to, at 36, be saying goodbye to my friend.”

Harrolle’s wife, Angela, declined to comment when contacted at her Mesa home.

Hummelgard and Grady Coblentz recalled childhood days when Harrolle dreamed about becoming a firefighter.

“He just loved helping people out. He had a great appreciation for all he had in life,” Hummelgard said.

Coblentz, an Ohio state trooper, said that even as a child, the challenge and adventure of being a first-responder and medic appealed to Harrolle.

“He was never one to sit on the sidelines,” Coblentz said. “It takes somebody who really wants to help people enough to put their own life at risk.”

The next search for adventure led Harrolle’s decision to purchase an airplane. He prepared to start flight school soon, to obtain his pilots license.

“He just liked the freedom to be up (in the air),” Hummelgard said. “If he wanted to take his kids somewhere for the weekend, he could do it on a whim and not worry about it.”

Most important to the nine-year DPS veteran was his wife and two young children.

“In a sense, it makes me proud to know he was doing his job, saving people,” Coblentz said, his voice shaking. “He was doing what he wanted to do. He’s a hero.”

and

Helicopter crash probe focuses on Air Angels

Aurora crash is 2nd in 5 years for firm; pilot died in 2003 accident

By Gerry F. Smith and Liam Ford | Chicago Tribune reporters

3:08 PM CDT, October 16, 2008

The crash of the Bell 222 helicopter run by Bolingbrook-based Air Angels Inc. is the second crash for the company in five years, and prompted Children’s Memorial Hospital—the flight’s destination—to suspend flights from the company Thursday morning.

The Wednesday night crash of the helicopter in Aurora killed a 13-month-old infant, Kirstian Blockinger of Leland, Ill., who hospital and air transport officials said was being treated for seizures. Also killed were the pilot, Dell Waugh, 69, of Carmel, Ind.; a nurse, William Mann, 31, of Chicago; and paramedic Ronald Battiato, 41, of Peotone, Ill.

Air Angels has flown critical-care flights in Illinois, Indiana and surrounding states for more than 10 years, according to a company statement. The company also grounded its remaining flights, a spokesman said.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the patient and our crew,” Air Angels Chief Executive Jim Adams said in the statement. “Air Angels is working with the National Transportation Safety Board and FAA to investigate the cause of the accident and we will provide more information as it becomes available.”

Details of the tragedy emerged throughout the day.

The flight crew and patient had left the emergency room at Valley West Community Hospital in Sandwich, Ill., around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday en route to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

The craft, a sleek Bell 222 helicopter that was a workhorse for medical flights and a star of local aviation shows, was based at Clow Airport in Bolingbrook.

The pilot reported no mechanical problems before takeoff and weather was not an issue below 10,000 feet, officials said. John Brannen, NTSB senior air safety investigator, said the pilot had last been in communication with the tower at DuPage Airport, where he asked for clearance through the airspace.

Brannen said Waugh was flying at 1,400 feet above sea level, or about 700 feet above the ground. He couldn’t explain why the helicopter was flying so low—the radio tower involved topped out at 749 feet above the ground, he said.

It was not known how much time the crew had to prepare for the flight, but they were not required to file a flight plan and had not. There had been no distress call, Brannen said, and the helicopter’s air speed wouldn’t be known until area radar could be checked.

The helicopter had no black box, though cockpit instruments may have recorded flight data if the fire didn’t destroy it. There was faint hope of a cockpit voice recorder, Brannen said.

To test the hypothesis that the helicopter struck the wire and then lost control—it may have lost control first—Brannen said investigators would haul the wreckage to an airport in Poplar Grove Thursday to inspect it, paying close attention to damage to the rotor blades and to where the tower guy wire was cut. Next they would review weather conditions, then focus on the pilot.

The investigation will join growing national concern about the safety of medical flights, particularly those at night, after a rash of fatal crashes in recent years.

National Transportation Safety Board records show that 24 people have been killed so far this year in at least 10 medical helicopter accidents, by far the greatest number of fatalities in the last four years. And the figures do not include the Aurora crash or a Sept. 28 accident in Maryland that claimed four lives.

Members of Congress have called for a hearing on flight safety as part of a reauthorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration next year. Likewise, the FAA formed a task force to look into the increased number of medical flight accidents and is in the process of redrafting safety rules. The NTSB recommends several measures to improve safety, including more training as well as equipping aircraft with terrain warning systems and other equipment that would make it safer to fly at night and in poor weather. It was not clear whether the Air Angels flight had that training or equipment.

Records show Air Angels helicopters have been involved in one other crash in the last five years, which was a January 2003 crash that killed the pilot. That investigation blamed pilot error, saying the weather was a factor. A third incident, a forced landing in August 2007, was blamed on mechanical problems; no one was injured.

Tribune reporter James Janega contributed to this report.