OmniFlight Medical Helicopter Crash Kills Three

September 26, 2009

OmniFlight Medical Helicopter Crash Kills Three

Georgetown, SC - Three people are dead after a medical helicopter crash in Georgetown. Authorities say the accident happened just after 11 p.m. Friday. The crash site is a mile south of the Georgetown Airport. Authorities say the victims are 45 year old pilot Patrick Walters, 42 year old flight nurse Diana Connor and 39 year old flight paramedic Randolph Claxton Dove. 

What should have been a life saving mission, turned deadly in an instant Friday night. Authorities say a medical helicopter operated by OmniFlight took a patient from Georgetown to MUSC Friday evening. 

“It’s a very safe aircraft,” Anthony DiNota, Chief Operating Officer for OmniFlight, explained in a press conference Saturday. 

After dropping off the patient, officials say the pilot, flight nurse and paramedic headed back to home base in Conway. 

“We do a position check every fifteen minutes and they didn’t report in,” Joel Hochhalter, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for OmniFlight, said. 

That silence began a frantic hour. Officials with OmniFlight say the flight crew never made a distress call. Authorities say at 11:16 p.m. Carolina Life Care Communications lost contact with the aircraft and at 11:30 further communication attempts with the helicopter were unsuccessful. 

Georgetown County Sheriff’s deputies began searching for the helicopter shortly afterwards and found the wreckage at 2 a.m. 

“The wooded area is a mile south of the airport,” Sam Hodge, Emergency Manager for Georgetown County, described. “It is a very tight, contained area.” 

Authorities say the helicopter caught on fire and that is making identifying the bodies nearly impossible. The Georgetown County Coroner is waiting on dental records to positively identify the bodies.  

 “These are the individuals that we deal with every single day,” Hodge added. “It’s a sad moment.”

 The FAA and NTSB are on scene and beginning their investigation. Officials say it may take weeks or months to determine what brought the helicopter down.

 Officials are not commenting if weather could have caused the crash. OmniFlight officials say conditions Friday night should not have prevented the helicopter from flying.

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