Dustin Pope (UMMC photo)
“This is a tragic day for the medical center.”
That was Doctor LouAnn Woodward, the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, following the crash of an AirCare helicopter in Madison County Monday…
“There was not a patient on the helicopter at the time. There were three crew members.”
Woodward says no one survived. One of the crew members was flight nurse Dustin Pope, 35, of Philadelphia. The helicopter based in Columbus had dropped off a patient and was headed back to its base when it went down in some woods near the Natchez Trace north of Highway 43…
“We do not know the cause. The FAA is here, NTSB. They are running an investigation.”
But Woodward says such an accident involving one of their helicopters is unprecedented…
“A real point of pride has been our safety record. In the history of our helicopter program, this is our first crash.”
The two others killed in the crash have been identified as UMMC critical care paramedic Jakob Kindt, 37, of Tupelo and Med-Trans pilot Cal Wesolowski, 62, of Starkville.
