| |

Helicopter Crashes in Washington Park

update:
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 has been grounded until further notice.


Click to view Memorial Page

To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.

Similar Posts

  • | |

    Strikemaster Crashes in Hudson


    Contact photographer Derek Heley

    What: Dragon Aviation 1969 BAC 167 Strikemaster en route from Nashville, Tennessee, to an airport in Ghent, New York See more about the plane here
    Where: near the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, Hudson River, Kingston New York
    When: Feb 26 2011 1:30 p.m.
    Who: pilot Michael Faraldi
    Why: The BAC 167 Strikemaster ex-military jet did a very low pass over the runway before crashing into the frozen Hudson River on approach to Kingston-Ulster Airport at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday near the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge. The body of 38-year-old Michael Faraldi was recovered 3 p.m. Sunday. Faraldi whose day job was podiatry was a general aviation pilot on his first transition into a high performance jet-fighter category aircraft.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | |

    Yemenia Flight 626 Ongoing Investigation

    Some airlines refuse to perform night approaches to the Moroni airport in the Comoros islands on the western coast of Grande Comoros. The airport is a non-redar environment, which means any inbound plane must use an instrument approach.

    That instrument approach was fatal for Flight 626, which crashed on June 30, nearly 2 years ago.

    International Lease Finance Corporation first leased the Airbus 310 to Air Liberté and from September 1999 to Yemenia airlines. In 2007, the plane had failed French inspections and was banned from French airspace. The French passengers aboard the flight had transferred to Flight 626 at Sana’a

    The crash is under investigation.

    Description of the runways of Moroni Airport:

    Length: 2900 meters Runway 02 is equipped with an automatic instrument landing system (ILS) Runway 20 is equipped with VOR-DME system (VHF Omni-directional Range navigation system, and Distance Measuring Equipment)

    work below cited from the Internet Wire, Feb 15, 2011 pNA
    LOS ANGELES, CA, Feb 15, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — For the families of the victims of the Yemenia Airlines flight 626 plane crash on June 30, 2009, a group of California law firms has filed case BC452279 in Los Angeles Superior Court against International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC). The Airbus A310 leased by ILFC to Yemenia airlines crashed on approach to Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport, in Moroni, Comoros.

    The case charges both ILFC and the unnamed principals whose negligence contributed to the crash that killed a hundred and fifty-two individuals, and nearly killed the one survivor, 12-year-old Bahia Bakari who was rescued after spending thirteen hours adrift in the Indian Ocean.

    Plaintiffs assert that Yemenia Airlines was “incompetent, unfit, inexperienced and/or reckless in its operation as an air carrier,” which can be ascertained by looking at the airline’s “long and notorious history of poor maintenance on an epic scale, poor pilot training and total lack of compliance with minimum standards of safety at every level of the company from 1999 to the present” (including but not limited to substandard or non-existent SARP, training, inspections, pilot certification and supervision, plane maintenance and airworthiness, and in-house regulations/documentation.) As the leasing agency ILFC is responsible for seeing they lease to responsible airline operators.

    Yemenia Airlines Flight 749 flew from Marseille to Sana’a International Airport, where passengers disembarked from a different airbus, and boarded Flight 626 Airbus A310 (70-ADJ). This second Airbus had avoided European airspace since an inspection in 2007 revealed it as being in noncompliance with ICAO standards.

    “We expect that attorneys representing other families in France will want their clients to join this lawsuit in the United States,” explains George Hatcher, whose Air Crash Consultants firm provides international communications support, investigative, paralegal and claims management services in the case.

    The investigation is ongoing.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | |

    Austrian Training Flight Crashes in Voglhub


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Markus Buttinger

    What: Flugring Salzburg Cessna F150L en route from Gmunden to Salzburg.
    Where: Straßwalchen, Salzburg
    When: June 21, 2012
    Who: 2 aboard, 2 fatalities
    Why: After disappearing from radar at 2:30, while on a training flight, a 71 year old flight instructor and 44 year old student pilot were in a fatal crash in Salzburg near Voglhub village. The flight was from Gmunden to Salzburg. After the crash, the plane’s beacon helped rescuers find the wreckage.

    Rescuers attempted to cut the victims out until 4:30 pm. They did not long survive the collision. The area was foamed to prevent fire. The crash site was a field near the Western Railway.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | | | |

    Crabtree Accident Preliminary Investigation Out

    What: RV6 two-seat airplane
    Where: Crabtree
    When: Nov 26, 2012
    Who: 2 aboard
    Why: The preliminary report on the Nov 26 crash of a 2 seat kit plane says a witness saw one wing fold upward during a turn, and the wing apparently hit the canopy, shattering its glass.

    A wing was lost in flight and found thousands of feet from the location of the wreckage.

    Aircraft owner Timothy Dean Carter of Portland and commercial pilot Jeff Earl Kropf of Halsey were killed in the crash.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | |

    Homebuilt Crashes in Spain


    A homebuilt plane crashed near El Álamo, Madrid after departing from Casarrubios Airport. The pilot was the only one aboard and died in the crash.

    The plane caught on fire, and two fire crews from Madrid responded to teh scene.

    The cause of the crash has not been determined. An investigation is underway.

    The pilot was a sixty year old aeronautical engineer.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | | |

    Russian Passenger jet Crashes in Igarka


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Senior

    What: Katekavia Antonov 24RV passenger jet en route from Krasnoyarsk to Igarka
    Where: Eastern Siberia
    When: August 2 2010
    Who: 3 crew and 11 passengers (also listed as 5 crew 10 passengers)
    Why: 700 meters from the landing at Igarka, the plane the plane veered to right and crashed before the runway, in bad weather conditions. (Night time landing, thunderstorms, limited visibility) 11 fatalities have been reported. The plane shattered and caught fire.

    Three crew members and one passengers were hospitalized initially–the only ones pulled alive from the plane– but now only 3 crew members remain fighting for their lives.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.