Second Crash In KS This Week
Three members of an air
ambulance crew were killed early Tuesday when their twin-engine
airplane crashed into a field near Dodge City (KS)
The Kansas Highway Patrol said it was the second fatal plane
crash in the state this week. In the other accident, 60-year-old
Carl Johnson of Pratt died Monday afternoon when a single-engine
plane he was piloting crashed into a field in Pawnee County. Two
other Kansans died Tuesday morning when their plane crashed four
miles east of Rich Hill (MO), near the Missouri-Kansas state
line.
Investigators said the EagleMedair ambulance crash occurred
about 3 a.m. in a field three miles west of Dodge City.
The FAA said the plane, a 1968 Beech King Air 90, took off from
Wichita Mid-Continent Airport and crashed short of its destination.
Officials at Ballard Aviation in Wichita, which operates the
service, said the crew was returning to Dodge City after delivering
a patient to Wichita. Investigators said rescue personnel arriving
at the scene quickly determined there were no survivors. It was
EagleMed's first accident since the company was formed in 1982, and
aviation safety officials said they couldn't remember another fatal
air ambulance crash in Kansas. The King Air 90 was one of four King
Airs used by EagleMed.
Killed were the pilot,
Brandon Bow of Dallas, and medical crewmembers Jonathan Dye of
Meade and Jennifer Hauptman of Coldwater. The company said Bow and
Dye joined EagleMed in 2002, while Hauptman started working there
last year. Bryan Owens, who lives near the crash scene, said he
awoke to the sound of loud airplane engines, then heard a huge
explosion that rocked the ground like an earthquake. After calling
911, he said, he ran to his truck and drove to the crash site. He
said there was no sign of life.
"It was so still all you could hear was your heartbeat," he
said.
Mike Klein, manager of the Dodge City Regional Airport, said the
pilot probably had the airport in sight when the crash
occurred.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating
both Kansas crashes. As with any investigation, the FAA will look
at issues including airworthiness, pilot competency and regulatory
compliance.
The accident in Kansas was at least the second fatal crash of a
fixed-wing air ambulance in the nation in the past three weeks,
according to the NTSB. The other occurred Jan. 31 in Hawaii. Across
the nation, there were 16 fatal and nonfatal air ambulance
accidents in 2002, only two of which involved fixed-wing craft,
Eileen Frazer, executive director of the Commission on
Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems, based in South Carolina
to the Wichita Eagle. That entity -- a not-for-profit corporation
that accredits air medical systems -- re-accredited EagleMed last
year, Frazer said.
She said she could not comment on the specifics of EagleMed's
compliance. The Association of Air Medical Services awarded
EagleMed its Fixed Wing Safety Award in 2000. A typical patient
transported aboard a medical aircraft would be someone bound for
cardiac surgery or someone in a deteriorating condition several
hours after an initial trauma, she said.
The NTSB's preliminary report read as follows:
IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 777KU
Make/Model: BE90 Description: BEECH
B90
Date: 02/17/2004 Time: 0858
Event Type: Accident Highest Injury:
Fatal Mid Air: N Missing:
N
Damage: Destroyed
LOCATION
City: DODGE
CITY
State: KS Country: US
DESCRIPTION
EAGLEMED 4, N777KU, ACFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES
IN A BACKYARD OF A HOME IN A RURAL AREA, THREE PERSONS ON
BOARD WERE FATALLY INJURED, ACFT WAS DESTROYED, DODGE CITY,
KS
INJURY DATA Total
Fatal: 3
#
Crew: 1 Fat:
1 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
#
Pass:
2 Fat:
2 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
#
Grnd:
Fat: 0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
OTHER DATA
Activity: Unknown Phase:
Unknown Operation: General
Aviation
Departed:
UNK
Dep Date: Dep.
Time:
Destination:
UNK
Flt Plan: UNK
Wx Briefing: U
Last Radio Cont: UNK
Last Clearance: UNK
FAA FSDO: WICHITA, KS
(CE07)
Entry date: 02/17/2004