Medical helicopter crashes in Maryland, killing 4

DISTRICT HEIGHTS, Md. — The pilot of a medical helicopter twice radioed for help in foggy weather before crashing Sunday, killing four of the five people on board in the latest of a growing number of air ambulance accidents, authorities said.

The medical helicopter was carrying victims of a traffic accident when it went down in a suburban Washington park. It was the deadliest medevac helicopter accident in Maryland since the state police began flying those missions nearly 40 years ago, and the eighth fatal medical helicopter crash in the last 12 months nationwide. About 30 people have died in such crashes during that period, National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said.

Crashes of medical aircraft have been increasing since the 1990s, in part because it is a booming business, fueled by the closing of emergency rooms in rural areas and an aging population, according to the National EMS Pilots Association. However, the state-run program in Maryland does not charge for its services and has been known for its safety record. It has had just three other fatal helicopter crashes in four decades.

"We are the only operation in the country that has the multiple mission of medevac, search and rescue, law enforcement, homeland security," state police spokesman Greg Shipley said.

On Sunday, a veteran pilot, a flight paramedic, a county emergency medical technician and one of the traffic accident victims died in the crash, authorities said.

An 18-year-old woman also injured in the traffic accident in Charles County survived the helicopter crash. She was in critical condition at a hospital.

The helicopter was on a roughly 25-mile trip from the traffic accident to the hospital when the aircraft radioed late Saturday that it would land at Andrews Air Force Base instead because conditions were "not favorable" at the hospital.

As they approached, the pilot radioed that he was having trouble assessing his surroundings. At 11:55 p.m., he again asked for assistance with the landing, and that was the last air traffic controllers heard from him, Hersman said.

The chopper crashed about midnight, three miles from the base, Hersman said. An earlier NTSB news release had incorrectly placed the time of the crash at 1:15 a.m.

The NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration were investigating the cause of the crash.

Hersman said the bodies have been removed from the site, but the wreckage remained Sunday night. Officials hoped to wrap up their work at the scene in a couple of days.