Third Person On Board Seriously Injured

A Eurocopter AS350 went down early Friday morning in Oklahoma City, OK, resulting in the fatal injury of two of the three people on board. Fatally injured were pilot Mark Montgomery and nurse Chris Denning, according to a report appearing on television station KWTV. Medic Billy Wynne was reportedly hospitalized in critical condition.

The aircraft had just gotten airborne when the accident occurred. In a briefing held in Oklahoma City on Saturday, NTSB Lead Investigator Alex Lemishko said that the initial takeoff appeared to be "normal. There were no radio or distress calls from the pilot that would indicate any problem in the initial phase of the flight." Lemishko said one witness who was driving near the accident scene "did see ... a flash of some kind coming from the helicopter. He looked up, he thought something  may have been wrong, and saw the helicopter descending in toward the parking lot here at (St. Ann's Retirement Center and St. Ann's Nursing Home)."

Lemishko said that witnesses were able to pull Wynne from the wreckage of the burning aircraft before it exploded a second time.

The Oklahoman reports that the aircraft belonged to Wichita, KS-based EagleMed. It had just departed from Integris Baptist Medical Center en route to Watonga, OK, to pick up a patient with a heart condition.

Pilot Mark Montgomery had reportedly flown for both the U.S. Army and Army National Guard. He had been with EagleMed for two years.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov