Medical helicopter crashes in Texas, killing 4
Pastor Dale Morgan
Medical helicopter crashes in Texas, killing 4*
AP - Monday, June 9
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A medical helicopter crashed on an isolated ranch in
a national forest early Sunday, killing a patient and three crew members
and strewing debris over a wide area.
The PHI Air Medical helicopter crew was taking a 58-year-old patient
from a hospital in Huntsville to one in Houston for surgery, said Butch
Davis, Walker County chief sheriff's deputy.
The flight left Huntsville Memorial Hospital at 2:45 a.m., and the
hospital lost contact with it two minutes later, Davis said. Searchers
didn't find the wreckage in the Sam Houston National Forest for almost
six hours.
"We had to bring a 'dozer in to get us a right-of-way into the
wreckage," he said. A path was cleared to the site, about 60 yards off a
ranch road.
The owner of the private ranch wasn't there at the time of the crash,
Davis said. The cause was being investigated, and the weather was clear
at the time.
He identified the dead as patient David Disman, flight nurse Jana
Bishop, pilot Wayne Kirby and flight paramedic Stephanie Waters. The
bodies were taken for autopsies.
"This is a devastating loss," said Jonathan Collier, spokesman for PHI
Air Medical.
The company said the flight crew's last successful mission came several
hours earlier, when they helped save a 2-year-old child pulled from a
swimming pool.
"They will be remembered for their professionalism, compassion for
others, magnetic personalities and their unwavering dedication for the
wellbeing of others," the company said in a statement.
Kirby had more than 30 years' experience as a pilot for PHI, including
flights in Antarctica and Africa, the company said. Bishop had worked
for the company since January 2005 and Walters since May 2006.