Crew Of Three Survived The Ditching

An LifeMed medevac King Air went down in the waters of Unalaska Bay last week shortly after takeoff from an airport in the Aleutian Islands. The plane and crew were enroute to Adak near the west end of the Aleutian chain to pick up a patient, but was airborne for only a few moments before going down in the water.

The pilot, paramedic and a nurse who were on board the aircraft were all able to exit the airplane and get into an emergency life raft before the plane sank in about 58 feet of water, according to a report from the Associated Press.

The King Air impacted the water about 300 yards offshore, according to the report. A city harbor boat was able to reach the crew in about 20 minutes and had the crew of the plane back on shore by 9:00 a.m. local time. They were evaluated at a local hospital.

LifeMed CEO Russ Edwards said during a news conference that the plane was airborne "a matter of moments" and that the weather was typical for the region. "Some wind, little gusts, but really nothing unusual for Dutch Harbor."

Aero Air was the vendor who supplied the airplane for the flight. The company uses multiple vendors for its operations.

LifeMed instituted a brief safety stand-down after the accident, according to Edwards. Ground operations continued as normal, and air operations resumed later that day.

(Image from file. Not accident aircraft)

FMI: Source report