Saturday, August 27, 2011

Eurocopter AS 350B2 Ecureuil, N352LN


Officials say a medical helicopter was running low on fuel when it crashed into a northwest Missouri field, killing all four people on board.

A 58-year-old female patient, a pilot and two medical workers died when the craft went down Friday evening near the small town of Mosby, about 20 miles northeast of Kansas City.

FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford says the helicopter was planning to land at an airport near Mosby for fuel when it crashed.

The helicopter was based at St. Joseph's Heartland Regional Medical Center, which posted condolences for the crew on its Facebook page.

The aircraft went down about 7 p.m., a mile northeast of the Midwest National Air Center, where it planned to stop for refueling, Lunsford said. It never reached the airport.

Clay County authorities said the crash occurred in a field on Cameron Road between 145th Street and Schoolfield Road.

The patient was being transported from Harrison County Community Hospital in Bethany, Mo., near the Iowa border, said Matt Smithmier, director of public relations for Liberty Hospital.

Lt. Shauna Craven of the Clay County sheriff’s office said the owner of the property where the crash occurred reported that he didn’t hear anything but said he happened to step outside and saw that the helicopter had plunged into his field.

Lunsford said the aircraft, a Eurocopter AS350 based in St. Joseph, was operated by LifeNet, a subsidiary of Air Methods Corp. of Englewood, Colo.

Air Method’s website describes it as “the nation’s largest provider of air medical emergency transport services and systems.”

Investigators from the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board were at the scene Saturday morning.

Colin McKee, airport director at Midwest National in Kearney, said the airport was notified by the helicopter’s dispatch center that it would be coming in for refueling. It was due shortly before 7 p.m., he said.

McKee said no maintenance issues were raised during that discussion. He said it’s not unusual for aircraft to refuel at that time of day.

“We refuel aircraft all the time,” McKee said.

He said he learned of the crash when an airport employee called him. He was uncertain whether that helicopter had previously visited the Midwest National airport.

He said the air center is a general aviation airport that, like the Johnson County and Wheeler Downtown airports, serves as a reliever for Kansas City International Airport.