In the moments before a medical helicopter crashed in Madison County Monday killing a Neshoba County man and two other crew members, the pilot was in radio contact with a dispatcher at his base of operations…
“…indicating they were having a flight control problem and they were going to attempt a landing into a field.”
But the National Transportation Safety Board’s Todd Inman says there’s evidence at the scene that the helicopter’s rotor blades struck some trees at the edge of the clearing before the aircraft crashed in some mud and shallow water, bursting into flames. Killed in the crash were University of Mississippi Medical Center flight nurse Dustin Pope from Philadelphia, UMMC critical care paramedic Jakob Kindt from Tupelo and pilot Cal Wesolowski from Starkville. The AirCare helicopter was based in Columbus and was returning there after dropping off a patient in Jackson.
Inman says the NTSB is beginning a thorough investigation…
“We will not be determining the probable cause or even speculating while we’re here on the scene about what may have caused this.”
A preliminary report is expected in 30 days but it’ll take one to two years for a final report to be issued….
“We will take as long as it takes, to get the right evidence, to find the right information to come up with the probable cause. The reason why we’re here and will do this investigation is not to just find out what happened, but why it happened and to recommend changes to help prevent things like that from happening in the future.”
