Medical helicopter crashes near hospital in Mississippi, 1 injured

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- A medical helicopter with four people on board crashed early Saturday just moments after it took off from a hospital, injuring one of its medical workers, authorities said.

The helicopter was taking a traffic accident victim from Quitman County Hospital to a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., said Jonathan Dancy, Quitman County's acting emergency management coordinator.

"It had just lifted off and got just above the trees," Dancy said. "The few witnesses who were here said it started rotating around and around and just went down."

He said the aircraft crashed about 20 feet from the hospital's helipad.

Dancy said the female patient did not suffer any additional injuries in the crash. She was later taken to Memphis by ambulance.

One of two medical personnel on board suffered a broken bone but his injuries were "nothing critical," Dancy said.

Dancy said was amazing that the pilot and the second medic were not injured.

"It looks like a mess," he said of the helicopter. "A lot of it is because they cut the top off it. But when you look at it, you wouldn't believe somebody survived."

A Federal Aviation Administration investigator arrived later in the day.

Marks is a town of 1,550 in the Mississippi Delta about 60 miles south of Memphis.

http://www1.wsvn.com/news/articles/national/MI56527/

[JetPhoto 626]

L U C K Y!!!

[Oswegowind 17]

That picture, when you click on the link, doesn't seem to have anything to do with the story...maybe it is just me!

Thank God everyone is okay...wonder what kind of chopper they were using.?

Edited July 29, 2007 by Oswegowind

[Guest WCDES636]

No the picture is of a UH-60 helicopter. The Helicopter that went down was a Bell 206 and the Medic was extricated from the aircraft and flown to another trauma center. The pic below is of one of the companies aircraft.

AirEvac.bmp

[xfirefighter484x 234]

Cannot speculate on reasons, but from description that it started rotating, possibly a tail rotor failure?

[RescueKujo 130]

Thank God no one was critically injured.

[JetPhoto 626]

Some of us have taken the ARFF class and they tell you ares of a plane that is safe to cut, but they never mentioned helicopters. That is not something most of us will never do, but it's worth learning about.