Tue, Jul 06, 2010
VFR Conditions Prevailed, But Emergency Landing Goes Wrong
An early Sunday aircraft accident has taken the lives of five
people as an Air Ambulance flight went wrong. The flight departed
at 0015 local time and occurred shortly after departure from
Alpine-Casparis Municipal Airport. The aircraft was enroute to
Midland, TX. The aircraft impacted in an open field about a mile
east of the airport, some 200 SE of El Paso, while 'attempting to
make an emergency landing' according to the TX Dept. of Public
safety.
DPS reports that the stricken aircraft impacted a rut in the
muddy field, where it overturned and burned. The accident was
deemed as having unlikely survival probabilities. Local officials
reports that conditions were VFR at the time of the accident.
The three crew persons and two passengers on board were
identified as 78-year-old patient Guy Richard Folger of Alpine, and
his 59-year-old wife, Mary Folger. Crewing the flight were two
flight nurses, 49-year-old Sharon Falkener of Fort Davis, and
42-year-old Tracy Chambers of Alpine. The aircraft was piloted by
Ted Caffarel of Beaumont, 59.
The Cessna 421, a piston twin-engine pressurized aircraft, was
reportedly owned and operated by O’Hara Flying Service of
Amarillo, TX, as part of its AASTAT (Air Ambulance Stat) program,
the medical wing of O'Hara flying Service. The service reports that
it 'specialize(s) in hospital to hospital transfers with a focus on
rural hospital needs.'
This was the second C421 accident for O'Hara... in May 8, 2009,
another OFS C421 went down to an engine failure, again in an open
field. The pilot and sole occupant survived with minor
injuries.
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