update:
- Governor Martin O’Malley ordered all state flags to fly at half mast to honor the four victims killed in a medevac helicopter crash over the weekend.
- Vewing for Trooper First Class Mickey Lippy will be Thursday, October 2nd from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Gamber & Community Fire Company Station 13 on Niner Road in Gamber, MD.
- Viewing for Pilot Stephen Bunker from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at South Potomac Church on Crain Highway in White Plains, MD.
- Lippy’s funeral will take place on Friday, October 3rd at 11:00 a.m at Gamber & Community Fire Company. Burial will be at the Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens on Padonia Road in Timonium.
MD.
- Bunker’s funeral will take place Saturday, October 4th, at 11:00 a.m. at South Potomac Church in White Plains, MD. Burial will be at Cedar Hill Cemetery on Pennsylvania Avenue in Suitland, MD.
- Arrangements for Frostburg State University freshman Ashley Younger and Waldorf Rescue Squad EMT Tanya Mallard have not been announced.
Survivor eighteen year old Jordan Wells critical at Boston Hospital where she was operated through the night Sunday, which alleviated fears that they might have to amputate one or both of her legs. When Ashley Younger (the other victim) never showed up, Younger’s mother probed the hospital staff, learned the helicopter had been rerouted to Andrews Air Force Base. The three women rushed there only to find that no helicopter had landed, so they returned to the hospital where they found Wells rushed through on a gurney. In spite of asking ‘Where’s my daughter? Where’s Ashley?’ ” no one told her that her daughter had died on the scene. The medical helicopter was carrying victims of a Saturday night traffic accident when it went down around midnight.
What: American Eurocopter Dauphin II
Where: Helicopter left its hanger at Andrews Air Force Base. suburban Washington park in a wooded area of Walker Mill Regional Park off of Ritchie Road.
When: Sunday
Who: Killed in the crash besides Bunker were Trooper First Class Mickey Lippy, EMT-B Tonya Mallard of the Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department and Ashley Younger, a 17-year-old who was the second victim from the Waldorf car accident.
Why: The helicopter was transporting car crash victims to the hospital. One eighteen year old crash victim survived both the car crash and the helicopter crash, and was transported to the hospital in critical condition.
On the twenty-five mile trip from the traffic accident to the hospital the flight was diverted due to bad weather. On approach to the runway, the pilot radioed that he was having trouble assessing his surroundings. Under deteriorating weather conditions, the pilot had requested an instrument approach and reported problems “capturing the glide slope”. The glide slope is the part of the instrument landing system that helps keep the aircraft at the proper altitude during the approach. It appears the helicopter first hit a tree at about 80 feet above the ground. The chopper landed on its left side with a tree crashing down on top of the helicopter.
Accident victim Jordan Wells, 18, survived the crash and is at a hospital in critical condition
The law enforcement agency’s helicopter fleet was grounded until Tuesday.
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KLM flight KL-898 had to reject take off from Beijing, China, on March 11th.