DISTRICT HEIGHTS, Md.—A monument to the four people killed in the 2008 crash of a State Police helicopter was unveiled Friday.
Seven years after they died, the lone survivor says she still feels tremendous guilt. And now she says she’s finally free to talk about it.
On that miserable September night, Jordan Wells spent 2 1/2 hours pinned under the wreckage in the woods with her best friend and three other people dead next to her.
She still wishes she had died and someone else had survived, she said.
“When you survive something and everyone else dies, it’s kind of hard not to feel guilty,” said Wells, during an interview at her home in Charles County. Md.
Trooper Two had taken off on a rainy, foggy night to rescue Jordan Wells, who had crashed her car on a flooded road, with her best friend, Ashley Younger. Pilot Stephen Bunker, paramedic Mickey Lippy and volunteer Tanya Mallard all risked their lives to save the young women.
“Why me?” said Wells. “What’s so special about me? How come their father couldn’t live? How come her husband couldn’t live? How come her son couldn’t live?”
Wells broke her back, fractured her skull and lost her left leg in the crash.
The pilot had flown into a cloud so thick, he descended desperately in an effort to get below it, unaware that he was about to crash into a tree. Wells said the first time she realized they were in trouble was when she saw panic in her medic’s eyes.
“I was watching Lippy’s face, and that’s how I knew we were crashing,” Wells said. “So I don’t really like to talk about that part.”
Wells remembers coming to in the woods and waiting hours for someone to find them.
“I was shivering and I was so cold, and my bones were sticking out,” Wells said. “And I remember praying to God, like ‘God, if you send someone to find me, I promise I will change.’ And I cried out for help. And as soon as I cried out for help, someone yelled back.”
During years of lawsuits, Wells says her lawyers insisted she never express her sorrow. But the lawsuits are settled now. And she draws strength from her faith and her two children.
And she wants the other families to know how she feels.
“Tell me something I could do to make it better. I’d do anything to take the pain out of their heart.”
The Maryland State Police have changed procedures and purchased new choppers with advanced safety features—but Wells says this crash was a perfect storm.
And she fears if there’s another perfect storm, it could happen again.
- Source: http://www.fredericksburg.com
NTSB Identification: MIA08MA203
14 CFR Public Use
Accident occurred Saturday, September 27, 2008 in District Heights, MD
Probable Cause Approval Date: 10/27/2009
Aircraft: AEROSPATIALE SA365N-1 D, registration: N92MD
Injuries: 4 Fatal, 1 Serious.
NTSB investigators traveled in support of this investigation and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
The Safety Board's full report is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/2009/AAR0907.pdf.
The Aircraft Accident Report number is NTSB/AAR-09/07
On September 27, 2008, about 2358 eastern daylight time, an Aerospatiale (Eurocopter) SA365N1, N92MD, call sign Trooper 2, registered to and operated by the Maryland State Police (MSP) as a public medical evacuation flight, impacted terrain about 3.2 miles north of the runway 19R threshold at Andrews Air Force Base (ADW), Camp Springs, Maryland, during an instrument landing system approach. The commercial pilot, one flight paramedic, one field provider, and one of two automobile accident patients being transported were killed. The other patient being transported survived with serious injuries from the helicopter accident and was taken to a local hospital. The helicopter was substantially damaged when it collided with trees and terrain in Walker Mill Regional Park, District Heights, Maryland. The flight originated from a landing zone at Wade Elementary School, Waldorf, Maryland, about 2337, destined for Prince George's Hospital Center, Cheverly, Maryland. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the departure; however, Trooper 2 encountered instrument meteorological conditions en route to the hospital and diverted to ADW. No flight plan was filed with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and none was required. The MSP System Communications Center (SYSCOM) was tracking the flight using global positioning system data transmitted with an experimental Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast communications link.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
The pilot's attempt to regain visual conditions by performing a rapid descent and his failure to arrest the descent at the minimum descent altitude during a nonprecision approach. Contributing to the accident were (1) the pilot’s limited recent instrument flight experience, (2) the lack of adherence to effective risk management procedures by the Maryland State Police, (3) the pilot’s inadequate assessment of the weather, which led to his decision to accept the flight,, (4) the failure of the Potomac Consolidated Terminal Radar Approach Control (PCT) controller to provide the current Andrews Air Force Base weather observation to the pilot, and (5) the increased workload on the pilot due to inadequate Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control handling by the Ronald Reagan National Airport Tower and PCT controllers.
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